The Characterization of Ammonium Nitrate Mini-Prills

Ammonium nitrate (AN) is commonly used as a fertilizer and is the fundamental ingredient of industrial explosives [1]. It has been observed that one of the most important factors that affect explosive performance of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil is the prills volume of porosity. The large amount of porosity identified in explosive grade AN prills allows for an absorption rate between 12 and 16 %. While, the agriculture grade ammonium nitrate prills are manufactured with an increased density and thus, have an absorption rate between 7 and 8 %. In this study, we explore an agriculture grade ammonium nitrate mini-prill, as this type of AN prill has not been characterized before. In order to determine how effective this agriculture grade prill is as an explosive, this mini-prill is compared to an explosive grade AN prill. This study observes and records its morphology and blasting performance as related to an explosive grade ammonium nitrate prill. Based upon instrumentation analysis, preliminary results indicate, as expected, that the mini-prill does have a more dense structure. Although, the decrease in fuel oil content that comes with a decrease in porosity has been observed, it demonstrates to be almost negligible as compared to the increase in velocity of detonation from the increase in charge density.