(707d) Desensitization of Energetic and Hazardous Chemical Materials

Safety Consulting Engineers, Inc.

2131 Hammond Drive 

Schaumburg, Illinois 60173 

847-925-8100

Desensitization of Energetic and Hazardous Chemical Materials

Hazardous substances or energetic materials are capable of posing a risk to health, safety, or property.  They can be desensitized to reduce sensitivities.

There are many chemicals and mixtures that contain a variety of hazardous, reactive materials, including, explosives, energetic materials, catalyst, reactive and toxic compounds.  These can represent serious hazards for a specific application, process or other potential uses such as fuel or as propellants for air and spacecraft, as explosives or pharmaceutical applications.  These materials can of course be dangerous to transport and store and ways must be developed to make such materials less susceptible to accidental explosions due to thermal and mechanical shock.

Useful techniques to enhance the identification and safe handling of the hazardous materials are described in this paper, including:

• Methodology to provide reasonable safety, wherein materials would otherwise be considered too hazardous to handle in a particular process.
• Techniques for reducing the sensitivity of various energetic and hazardous chemical materials to detonation, explosion, self heating, reactivity, fire, friction, heat, etc.
• Guidelines to develop the effectiveness of alternative, environmentally sound options for safely handling energetic and hazardous materials during industrial process; covers disposal and transportation.
• Applicable regulatory methods for hazardous materials and desensitized high energetic materials classification, particularly for those susceptible to accidental explosions due to mechanical shock.

It is the responsibility of each shipper to identify the substances or articles they ship, provide information on critical physical characteristics and to properly classify all materials that are subject to the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR).

Key words: Desensitized Energetic Material, Hazardous Material Identification, Hazardous Material Classification Methods.