LEXINGTON Ky.
A University of Kentucky researcher is trying to find a way to stop fertilizer from being used for bombs while keeping it safe for farmers to use on crops.
Though experiments, Darrell Taulbee has found that a mix of 20 percent coal ash to 80 percent ammonium nitrate would keep an explosion from burning through all its fuel and make the blast much weaker.
Two advantages of coal ash over other dilution substances are that it’s nontoxic and cheap, Taulbee said. Keeping the cost down is important because Taulbee wants the fertilizer to remain affordable and still be beneficial to crops.
“It doesn’t do any good to stop the explosion if it hurts the agriculture,” he said. “That’s its purpose.”
Shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, Taulbee thought of adding coal ash, a byproduct of coal-burning electric plants, to dilute the explosive chemical. He has been testing his theory over the past two years.
Although coal ash could contain some heavy metals that could damage crops, a 20 percent mix of it would be something to monitor rather than worry about, said Wilbur Frye, executive director of the office of consumer and environmental protection in the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.
