United States Commercial Explosives

United States Commercial Explosives of Nan-permissible type. Many expls of this type are known and used in mining, quarries, etc and they are too numerous to describe in this section. It would be more appropriate to describe them in alphabetical order throughout the Encyclopedia, such as Blasting Explosives, (See Vol 2, pp B 202ff), Blasting Gelatin (See Vol 2, p B 211-R), etc. 

Lead Azide. The azides belong to a class of very few useflil explosive compounds that do not contain oxygen. Lead azide is the primary explosive used in military detonators in the United States, and has been intensively studied (see also Lead compounds). However, lead azide is being phased out as an ignition compound in commercial detonators by substances such as diazodinitrophenol (DDNP) or PETN-based mixtures because of health concerns over the lead content in the fumes and the explosion risks and environmental impact of the manufacturing process. 

R. W. Watson,. E. Hay, and R. W. Van Dolah, "Commercial Explosives in the United States GeneraUties and Some Details," in Symposium on Militay Applications of Commercial Explosives DREV M-2241/72, Defense Research Estabhshment, Valcartier, Canada, 1972, p. 13. 

The current market for concentrated hydroxylamine solutions is expanding. If not for the explosion, CSI would have been the first company in the United States to manufacture this product in commercial quantities. Nissin Chemical Company was the sole global supplier of hydroxylamine up to that time. In early 1999, BASF Aktiengesellschaft started up a new production facility in Germany. Fourteen months following the CSI incident, a catastrophic explosion at the Nissin plant in Japan further decreased the availability of hydroxylamine. 

Large quantities of explosives are used every year. In the United States, for example, the annual consumption exceeds over 2 million tonnes. Most are used for commercial purposes and are ammonium nitrate-based formulations. There are less than a dozen chemical explosives that are manufactured in bulk quantities, and most of these were discovered in the 50-year period between 1850 and 1900. New explosives have been synthesized but optimization of the formulations takes decades and is very expensive. Consequently, any new material has to offer very significant advantages, either in terms of unique performance for military applications or in terms of cost and safety for commercial applications. 

ICI Explosives Environmental Company (ICIEEC) has developed a rotary kiln incinerator for the treatment of explosives and other hazardons wastes. The purpose of the technology is to offer an alternative to open detonation for remediating materials contaminated with explosives and reactive materials. The ICIEEC facility in loplin, Missouri, is the only commercial incinerator in the United States that regnlarly accepts U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Hazard Class 1.1 materials. The technology is commercially available. 

Startech PWC systems are applicable to manufacturing facilities, hospitals, process plants, military sites, and municipalities. Systems have been used in the field to treat chemical weapon and explosive simulants. In addition, the vendor claims that the technology has successfully treated metals, such as lead and barium, during testing. The technology is commercially available in the United States and overseas. 

Gunpowder was the primary explosive used for almost one thousand years. In 1846, the Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero (1812-1888) first prepared nitroglycerin, but it was twenty years before Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) developed its use commercially. Nobel was bom in Stockholm, Sweden, where his father, Immanuel Nobel (1801-1872), ran a heavy constmction company. When Alfred was four, his father s company went bankrupt and Immanuel left for St. Petersburg, Russia, to start over. Immanuel rebuilt a successful business in Russia, in part due to his ability to develop and sell mines to the Russian Navy for use in the Crimean War. Alfred and the rest of his family joined his father in Russia when he was nine, and Alfred received an excellent education with private tutors. He studied in the United States and Paris where he met Sobrero. Nobel studied... 

In spite of its drawbacks, during World War I France, Russia, and the United States used commercial trinitroxylene as an explosive, mostly in mixtures with other nitro compounds, or with ammonium nitrate, when these countries were short of nitration grade toluene. In the period between the two World Wars trinitroxylene was manufactured in the U.S.S.R and France and on a small scale in Poland. 

The use of commercial explosives in the United States was fairly constant over the past decade, averaging between 2 to 3 million tons per year. 

The United States Department of Transportation classifications of explosive materials used in commercial blasting operations are not identical with the statutory definitions of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, Title 18 U.S.C., Section 841. To achieve uniformity in transportation, the definitions of the United States Department of Transportation in Title 49 Transportation CFR, Parts I-999 subdivides these materials into ... 

DDD. Commercial Industrial note For related, or similar information, see Application No. 059,929, May 10, 1993, by The United States Navy, to Michael Chaykovsky, Columbia, MD, William M. Koppes, Adelphi, MD. Part or parts of this laboratory process may be protected by international, and/or commercial/industrial processes. Before using this process to legally manufacture the mentioned explosive, with intent to sell, consult any protected commercial or industrial processes related to, similar to, or additional to, the process discussed in this procedure. This process may be used to legally prepare the mentioned explosive for laboratory, educational, or research purposes. 

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