I agree, it's kind of a different class of threat for everyday people.
Not assuming it would be the same, but picturing a spill at a gas station. Spilling gas is a problem, but at least it's just sort of there.
If you get an ammonia leak and it forms a vapor cloud, I don't think most people would know how to deal with that.
I'll bet your spilled gas likely won't migrate into the intersection.
But on the plus side, we already see what handling/transportation of large amounts looks like for agriculture, even if rail carriers etc. dislike dealing with it.
Correction: Ammonia is not flammable since the flash point is significantly above room temperature. It would only be explosive if you consider the pressure vessel exploding, but we also have natural gas powered cars which also have pressurized cylinders. The main real issue is the toxicity.
It does have a higher ignition point than gas. But one a spark can definitely reach. It’s been a common problem in industry where ammonia gets used a lot (refrigeration in particular).
BLEVE’s are also a problem too of course. And the toxic nature of breathing it in! Haha.
Anhydrous ammonia’s ‘flash point’ (producing flammable/explosive vapors) is well below room temperature at STP? It boils at -28F. That’s why it is so commonly used for refrigeration.
It does have a specific LEL and UEL that makes it less dangerous than gasoline. It also has a much higher auto ignition temp.
Yeah, anhydrous ammonia is less dangerous than gasoline (1 instead of 4) on the fire diamond due to it being less easy to ignite.
But flash point doesn’t help you here?
electrical sparks or open flame can still definitely do it. And have, multiple times.
Some pretty amazing clips in industrial accident videos from it, actually. My favorite part is when the chunk of roof almost makes it to the highway.
Flash point and boiling points are different. The flashpoint of ammonia is 270F. Below this temperature at 1 atm, ammonia will not catch fire no matter what.
That video took place in an engine room, so any combination of heat, flame, or spark is possible.
“Flash point is the temperature a liquid (usually a petroleum product) will form a vapour in the air near its surface that will “flash,” or briefly ignite, on exposure to an open flame”
If ammonia is boiling (and producing a fog) of concentrated vapor which then burns/explodes in exposure to an open flame, which it will definitely do at even OF, that is an entirely academic point no?
If it is cheap, that will beat out a lot of other concerns. Not sufficient for consumer use, but power plants are already hazardous places that can engineer significant safety controls.
Well... there's hydrazine (N2H4) which is the stuff they use as monopropellant rocket fuel. It burns even without the presence of oxygen and it's even more toxic and explosive than ammonia. It's the reason the capture crews for returning spacecrafts wear hazmat suits.
However hydrazine is liquid at room temperature and it can be converted to hydrazone (also being considered for fuel cells) which is solid at room temperature and non-reactive... until it comes into contact with water at which point it all turns back into hydrazine.
But yeah no there's really not a "nicer" fuel. Generally, if it has nitrogen in it and it isn't literally just nitrogen with itself, it's dangerous. And the more nitrogens it has the more dangerous it is.
Diesel's flash point is above ambient temperature (unless you live in the Sahara). It has a lower autoignition point than gasoline, which is one of the reasons it's preferred in compression ignition engines.
If you dump gasoline on a fire, it will go ‘fwoomp’ and try to climb back into whatever container you poured it out of. If it succeeds, that container may even explode. Which is bad, and why people die or get terrible burns from pouring gasoline on fires.
If you pour diesel on a fire, the fire will get bigger and none of those things will happen. Unless, apparently, like the poster above, you pour so much on it so fast it drowns it before the diesel can get up to temp. Apparently. I’ve personally never tried that.
Diesel is basically cooking oil in many ways, and you can do the same thing with cooking oil too if you want.
This is well known by every redneck I’ve ever met, and I’ve personally done it numerous times.
P.S. also, putting gasoline on cold fuel in warm climates makes a pretty cool fireball due to said flashpoint. Just, you know, don’t light it from close up. Cold climates? No problem.
