Plant cell materials, explosive

Cellulose occurs everywhere in the vegetable kingdom it is wood fiber and cell wall, the structural material of all plants. Cotton fiber is practically pure cellulose, but cellulose of equal purity, satisfactory in all respects for the manufacture of explosives and smokeless powder, may be produced from wood. Cellulose and starch both yield glucose on hydrolysis, and the molecules of both these substances are made up of anhydroglucose units linked together. 

Small towers sometimes are reinforced PVC, and there is no need for a lining. A potential problem with PVC or other nonconductive material is the accumulation of a static charge. The explosion of a set of three PVC dryers in a mercury-cell plant was attributed to static discharge in the presence of an explosive gas [27]. The root cause of the incident was the failure of the power supply to the mercury pumps, which allowed mercury to drain from the cells and uncover the steel bottoms. This led to the formation of large quantities of hydrogen. The investigators concluded that towers should be constructed of acid-proof conductive material that can be held at ground potential. 

---