January 25, 2021

PPAN (Porous Prilled Ammonium Nitrate ) Shipment Announcement

We are pleased to have delivered our 2nd load of Porous Prilled Ammonium Nitrate (PPAN) to a customer in Australia. We are currently scheduling shipments for the 3rd & 4th load. The PPAN will be used in ANFO blasting in the mining industry.

PPAN Bulk bags being loaded into a 20GP container

Below is the video was taken by one of our team at the loading point in Qingdao port, China.

Client Challenges

Before working with Kemcore, the client had imported PPAN from other Chinese suppliers. He faced challenges with “caking” PPAN. The customer runs emulsion pump trucks thus could not afford to have lumps in the prilled ammonium nitrate. It blocked up the pump hoses during operation.

Caking of Ammonium Nitrate

Under conditions of high humidity, AN tends to soak up moisture. As a result, individual particles tend to agglomerate to form lumps.

This phenomenon is referred to as “caking”. Most commercial applications, it is important that the ammonium nitrate particles be free-flowing. For use in the explosives industry, the ammonium nitrate should easily flow from the storage bins into the mixing vessel. Coupled with the fact that the ANFO emulsion must be pumpable and not block the hoses.

Feedback received from the client:

“The PPAN appears good quality. Free-flowing mainly. The bags sitting on the bottom in the shipping containers have been compressed so there are soft lumps in those bags.”

Kemcore supplies PPAN, coated with an anticaking-agent. Consequently, this ensures that even after long term storage the PPAN remains free-flowing.