The Horrifying Science Behind Beirut’s Blast…(English):

At six o’clock on Tuesday evening (4 August 2020), giant clouds from the warehouse located at the port of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, begin to touch the sky, and moments later a terrible explosion occurs. Seeing this, the heart of the entire human race is shaken with fear, filled with emotion and compassion. When I am writing this article, about 160 people have been killed and more than 4000 people have been injured in this blast. The explosion was so large that the windows of buildings and houses, furniture were broken, vehicles were overturned for nearly 10 kilometers from its center, and for about 200 kilometers people felt the vibrations produced by it. You can easily watch videos of this incident on YouTube. But the question arises that how did this explosion happen and why did it prove to be so devastating?

The chemical compound which is thought to be responsible for this blast is ammonium nitrate (NH₄NO₃). So, what is this ammonium nitrate? This is the compound which is commonly used in the agricultural fertilizers and mining’s explosive. As per Lebanese President Michel Aoun, for the past 6 years, 2750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate (NH₄NO₃) was stored in a warehouse without any safety measures.

Let’s first talk a little about the chemistry of ammonium nitrate (NH₄NO₃). We can easily see from the formula structure of ammonium nitrate that it has NH₄⁺ made up of ammonium part and NO3, which is nitrate part. Under favorable storage conditions these two molecules NH4+ and NO3- pull each other into a harmless hug. But when there is a spark or a fire in this compound, these two molecules interact with each other and release a lot of energy. Chemistry tells us that ammonium is like hydrogen which can act as a fuel and nitrate is like oxygen which acts as an oxidizer. Therefore, when fire makes contact with ammonium nitrate, ammonium acts as a fuel, and nitrate provides more oxygen to ignite. And together they make the perfect recipe for destruction. That’s why when we make fertilizers from ammonium nitrate, we mix a large number of other compounds to settle down its combustibility.

We do not yet know clearly how the ammonium nitrate ignited in this incident. There can be two possibilities for this fatal destruction. The first possibility is that the warehouse fire somehow came in contact with ammonium nitrate. I am saying this because ammonium nitrate is a relatively stable compound that melts at 170 ° Celsius. So, the question arises that how did ammonium nitrate achieve such a temperature to ignite? o the answer may be that somehow the fire in the warehouse has come in contact with ammonium nitrate and due to the continuous chemical reactions, it has caused a devastating explosion. So, a second possibility may be that since this chemical compound was stored in the warehouse for the last 6 years without any safety measures, the compound may have been contaminated due to improper and adverse storage conditions. And chemistry suggests that the melting point of a compound decreases due to contamination, then it may be due to the fact that at such a low temperature this chemical compound has started combustible chemical reactions, and as a result of which it could have a devastating explosion.

The import and export of ammonium nitrate and other similar chemicals are done by ships in large quantities all over the world. But we never heard of such an explosion. Now the question arises that why this explosion proved to be so destructive? Ammonium nitrate should not be ignited in a closed space. But here the chemical compound was lying in a closed warehouse without proper safety measures. Due to which chemical reactions started in the compound and heat, gases like Nox gases, nitric acid began to be pressurized, which accelerates the heat and pressure compound actions. This resulted in this devastating explosion. The explosion of ammonium nitrate caused rapid pressure in the area. We know from science that every gas flows from a high-pressure region to a low-pressure region, this is also the reason behind the wind flow. This pressure results in the outflow of supersonic pressure waves. And this was the reason that the buildings were damaged, the vehicles overturned in near places, and the vibrations were felt by the explosion several kilometers away.

A team of researchers analyzed the images and footage of the explosion and speculated that the explosion was the largest non-nuclear explosion in recent years. They estimated its strength to be approximately 1000–1500 times the TNT and about 10% of the intensity of the Hiroshima explosion. Many people have been killed in this explosion and property has also been severely damaged. The situation now is that there has been a shortage of food items in Lebanon because most of Lebanon’s food reserves were at the port of Beirut and they have all been destroyed due to this explosion.

So now as humanity, it is the duty of all countries to help Lebanon get out of this difficult situation. And the whole world needs to learn a lot from this incident. The rules for the maintenance of chemicals clearly state that never keep a huge amount of chemicals in one place at any time. The stock of chemicals should be at a reasonable distance from the human settlement. There should be proper environmental conditions in-store before storing any chemicals. We found that the entire process of maintenance of chemicals was blown apart in this sequence, due to which this disastrous result was revealed. But now all countries should properly inspect their chemical stores so that any such incident can be prevented from happening in the future.