Knowledge is power
A lmost one year ago, at the time of this writing, an explosion occurred in Allentown, PA, just two miles from my home. On February, 19, 1999, at approximately 8:15 p.m., Concept Sciences blew up. Five people were killed as a result of the explosion-four employees of Concept Sciences and an employee from a neighboring company-by falling debris when the building was leveled.
The firm was running its first production batch of hydroxylamine. The process consisted of mixing hydroxylamine sulfate with potassium hydroxide and then stirring. A precipitate of potassium sulfate occurs and the hydroxylamine is then purified through distillation and dilution to produce, hopefully, a 50/50 mixture of hydroxylamine and water. At this point the hydroxylamine is stable. At 70% the hydroxylamine becomes unstable. The Military discarded the use of high concentrations of hydroxylamine as a military explosive because of the need for extremely controlled conditions in its use. There are a number of conditions that can cause the material to detonate: high concentration, crystallization, and the presence of heavy metals in the highly concentrated solution.
On the evening of the explosion, it is said, the operators were producing a concentrated hydroxylamine to mix with water. What went wrong is anyone's guess, but some things are certain: