News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Possibility of explosion at Arkema chemical plant near Houston. Parent comment

Re:Possibility of explosion at Arkema chemical plant near Ho... by SAI_Peregrinus on Wednesday August 30, 2017 @11:15PM (#15137913)
Powerful oxidizers. The PEPCON disaster in 1988 was a different oxidizer, ammonium perchlorate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEPCON_disaster

Derek Lowe has a good post on some very strong peroxides: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2014/10/10/thi...

Of course quantity matters. But messing about with strong oxidizers is scary. The article doesn't say which organic peroxide it is, and that matters a lot too.

Edit: Given the list of products made at the site[1] (PVC, acrylic paints, etc) it might be MEKP[1]. That's quite a strong explosive.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20170830090410/http://www.arkema... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_ethyl_ketone_peroxide

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Possibility of explosion at Arkema chemical plant near Ho... by vvanders on Wednesday August 30, 2017 @11:46PM (#15138024)
Uf, ammonium perchlorate is literally rocket fuel, they use it in the SRBs and for a lot of amateur rocketry.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Possibility of explosion at Arkema chemical plant near Ho... by ams6110 on Thursday August 31, 2017 @12:48AM (#15138234)
It's not rocket fuel itself, it's an oxidizer. Storing it in aluminum bins as PEPCON did strikes me as quite risky, since aluminum powder with such an oxidizer would make a good solid rocket fuel or explosive. As a kid, friends and I used to make our own fireworks with ammonium nitrate fertilizer. These days if you buy much of that and aren't a farmer you'll likely get a visit from serious men in dark suits.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Possibility of explosion at Arkema chemical plant near Ho... by SAI_Peregrinus on Thursday August 31, 2017 @12:15AM (#15138121)
Yes, and TATP is a high explosive. MEKP is almost as powerful (5200m/s detonation velocity vs 5300m/s for TATP) but much more useful commercially. It's a precursor for all sorts of plastics.
[ Parent | on HN ]