Development of Emulsion Explosive Using Palm Olein for Blasting Works

Abstract

Malaysia is one of the biggest producer and of palm olein in this world. There are many applications of palm olein from ice cream to lipsticks. Current progress in the new infrastructure in Malaysia, namely; ECRL, MRT which involve a lot of blasting work that require huge amount of explosive. Therefore, this research explores the potential of using palm olein as a fuel phase in emulsion explosive for blasting work. The objective of this research is to obtain the optimum velocity of detonation (VOD) by varying the microballons and water content. In this experiment, palm olein is used as fuel phase. 15 samples of emulsion explosives were developed with a content 3% of palm olein and ammonium nitrate used fix content of 90%. Three samples were made as control, in which six samples were made variety of water range and follow by another six samples of microballons (1-3%). Detonation velocity testing using fiber optic method was conducted to access the VOD obtain from using 18% water and 3% of microballons, which give a maximum VOD 5800 m/s. The result showed the usage of palm olein with combination of water, microballons can produce higher VOD of emulsion explosive as compared with control sample. Thus, it can be used as an alternative emulsion explosive in blasting industries.

Keywords: Emulsion explosive, microballons,  palmolein, velocity of detonation, water.