AbstractCertain types of inorganic fertilisers containing ammonium nitrate are capable of self‐propagating decomposition if locally initiated by fire or other thermal means and bulk stores have been involved in large scale incidents in several countries. This is a slow type of fuse behaviour new to fertiliser technology and has been entitled ‘cigar‐burning’. For cigarburning to occur, an ammonium nitrate and a chloride content are necessary, together with a suitable rigid porous matrix that withstands high temperature. The matrix provides the cellular structure inside which the exothermic chloride‐catalysed decomposition of ammonium nitrate takes place. A simple test procedure to differentiate between burning and non‐burning compositions is described. Most types of commercially available fertilisers, in particular the important range based on ammonium nitrate, ammonium phosphates and potassium chloride, together with many research formulations have been studied and the effect of formulation on cigar‐burning is detailed. Storage recommendations to avoid large scale incidents in the fut
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