Chemist eliminate fertilizer bomb threat

NY Times:

A major chemical company will announce Tuesday that it has found a way to render nitrogen fertilizer useless as an explosive, and improve its value to some crops.

The company, Honeywell, of Morris Township, N.J., has patented a method for combining ammonium nitrate fertilizer with a second type of fertilizer, ammonium sulfate. Ammonium nitrate can be soaked in diesel fuel to produce a powerful bomb and is a favorite of terrorists, but when chemically tied to the ammonium sulfate, its chemical structure is changed so that it is no longer explosive.

Chemists had been looking for ways to render ammonium nitrate nonexplosive since the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was destroyed by a truck bomb in 1995, killing 168.

...

The new fertilizer has less sulfur than ammonium sulfate, making it more widely usable, Honeywell said, and includes a mixture of nitrogen that is released promptly and nitrogen that becomes available slowly, making it a superior fertilizer.

One of the many things I love about this country is the ingenuity of our people. To be able to eliminate a terrorist threat and make a product better at the same time is something you are more likely to see in the US than any other country.

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