Uses of Ammonium Nitrate

Ammonium nitrate is a very popular chemical that has a variety of applications throughout the world. Uses of this salt include in fertilizer, in explosives, and in making instant cold packs. Chemically, this salt is the nitrate of ammonia and at room temperature appears as a solid white substance, in similar appearance to salt. It is an oxidizing agent so it is very explosive when combined with other chemicals, but on its own it is stable at room temperature. USE IN ANFO ANFO is one of the most explosive compounds that can be created, and ammonium nitrate is the main ingredient inside of it. ANFO is a very common explosive that is commonly used in mining, destruction projects, and civil construction. It is created by combining ammonium nitrate with a common carbon source, such as oil, sugar, or even molasses. ANFO accounts for roughly eighty percent of all blasts that occur in the United States on an annual basis. It is very explosive and should be handled with care, and it can only be obtained by companies and people that have obtained the proper license to purchase and use it. FERTILIZER Ammonium nitrate is one of the main ingredients inside high nitrogen fertilizers. It has been theorized that approximately half of all people throughout the world currently rely on ammonium nitrate fertilizer to get the food that they eat every day. That's because food grown from fertilizer is usually healthier and produces more food than food grown from the ground alone. There are some groups that say fertilizer is poisonous and they advocate for natural fertilizer instead, such as cow manure. However, there has been extensive testing and studies conducted that show fertilizer derived from ammonium nitrate is no more poisonous than fertilizer derived from cow manure. INSTANT COLD PACKS One of the final uses of the salt mentioned above is in the creation of instant cold packs. Instant cold packs are used to quickly numb an area because of pain or to stop the process of swelling on an injury. They are almost always created by having water in one part of the pack and ammonium nitrate in another part. When the two parts of the pack are crushed and combined together, this salt is allowed to seep into the water supply. This causes an endothermic reaction which sucks all of the heat out of the surrounding area and makes the pack cold. You can check Ammonium Nitrate Fertilizer Manufacturers here.