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Beirut Port 2020 Explosion

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Babcock_Hall:
https://cen.acs.org/safety/industrial-safety/chemistry-behind-Beirut-explosion/98/web/2020/08

Chemical and Engineering News has a story.

wildfyr:
Enthalpy,

I fail to understand how your discussion disputes the idea that likely impure ammonium nitrate is haphazardly decomposing into various NOx molecues, some of which are red, especially NO2. What is propep?  Is this some software that produces idealized reactions? How does it do better than the experimental data I found on research gate?

Its pretty clear to me that it is VERY well known that decomposition of ammonium nitrate gives NOx gases in the real world even under perfect conditions. The ratios are certainly going to be influenced by conditions.

Here is another paper showing ammonia, nitrous oxide, and nitric acid are decomposition products under their careful lab conditions with clean materials. Propep did not spit out any of those 3. Seems unreliable for this usage.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1021/ja01651a096

Enthalpy:
I'm willing to believe that the incomplete detonation of ammonium nitrate produces red fume.

Direct observation would be more convincing than some referenced papers of poor quality or not exactly related with a detonation. One paper makes essentially unsubstantiated claims, an other mistakes the detonation speed with the speed of the shockwave and pure ammonium nitrate with its mixture with a fuel. Decomposition by slow heating doesn't neither represent the products of a detonation.

At the Texas City disaster, testimonies reported red fume. I wish to know more, ideally see the exact colour on a video, but this is already convincing.

Propep is reliable within its intended use: compute equilibria in a rocket combustion chamber. Here, much ammonium nitrate must be dispersed before it detonates, so out-of-equilibrium decomposition can produce something else, especially NO2.

==========

Today, Michel Aoun, the Lebanese president, considered publicly the hypothesis of a missile or a bomb
https://www.lesoir.be/317785/article/2020-08-07/explosions-beyrouth-le-president-du-liban-evoque-la-negligence-ou-un-missile
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/07/beirut-explosion-former-port-worker-says-fireworks-stored-in-hangar
the article doesn't tell more. Shall a missile have started the first fire that let detonate the ammonium nitrate? The wording of the Belgian article would also be compatible with a missile being developed in the Beirut port, but Michel Aoun asked for images to determine if aeroplanes or missiles were present in the air.

It's practically unavoidable that a huge cargo of ammonium nitrate in Beirut would be misused by some Lebanese faction to tinker explosives.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/protests-lebanon-arrests-16-beirut-blast-live-updates-200807062157963.html
"Hezbollah denies storing arms at blast site".
30 to 40 bags of fireworks confiscated by the Customs were stored in the same hangar as the ammonium nitrate. Ignorance kills.

In the morning of the disaster day, before 11:00 CET (09:00 UT), I heard and saw a small dozen of four-engined US military transport planes flying here, near Ramstein. About as many planes of same model flew (back?) in the next and following morning. The same happened before US military interventions, for instance to destroy Syrian combat planes. I just wonder why the US armed forces would make such a fuss to blow a hypothetical clandestine lab, while any combat aircraft with its stock missiles would do the job.

Enthalpy:
A newspaper has completely different figures about the power of the explosions in Beirut, Toulouse and others
https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2020/08/07/comparee-a-d-autres-catastrophes-quelle-a-ete-la-puissance-de-l-explosion-au-port-de-beyrouth_6048412_4355770.html
40 times more energy in Beirut than Toulouse, that's not what I expected from the pictures.

==========

Several countries developed laser weapons, the US had one (Jumbojet-sized) to destroy missiles from 500km distance and demonstrated the destruction of drones at short distance. It's unavoidable that these weapons serve to ignite fires in covert operations, because this is easier than stopping a missile and the action is hard to prove.

Enthalpy:
Video of the damage made by a drone flying through the damaged buildings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMvBg7YIDAA
Impressive damage, and impressive flying skills too.

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