Then the ANHYDROUS ethanol can enter the U.S. as if it were Jamaican product under the trade preferences.
Some firefighters at the scene of a fertilizer plant explosion in Texas were concerned Wednesday night about anhydrous ammonia.
Anhydrous ammonia, a gas used in making fertilizer, can cause severe burns if it combines with water in the body.
The state fire marshal's office had previously ruled out four potential causes: weather, natural causes, anhydrous ammonium and ammonium nitrate in a rail car.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, anhydrous ammonia is a pungent gas with suffocating fumes that is used as a fertilizer.
On Monday, the state fire marshal's office said it ruled out four potential causes: weather, natural causes, anhydrous ammonium, and ammonium nitrate in a rail car.
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As an example, Jamaica imports HYDROUS (with 5% water content) ethanol from Brazil and removes that water in Jamaica to turn it into ANHYDROUS ethanol (nearly 0% water).
On Monday, the state fire marshal's office said it had ruled out weather, other natural causes, anhydrous ammonium and ammonium nitrate in a rail car as possible causes.
"Anhydrous ammonia will burn but it is unusual for it to detonate, whereas ammonium nitrate has a track record of blowing up, " he told the BBC World Service.
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He was the biggest local seller of anhydrous ammonia a fertilizer used by cotton farmers and also operated grain elevators that did millions of dollars of business annually with the government.
"Anhydrous ammonia will burn but it is unusual for it to detonate, whereas ammonium nitrate has a track record of blowing up, " explained Prof Andrea Sella, a chemist at University College London.
The newspaper said it had seen documents in which the plant said it stored large amounts of anhydrous ammonia, but the worst scenario envisaged was a release of ammonia gas that would harm no-one.
BBC: Texas Waco fertiliser plant blast causes many casualties
Ms. Monforton said she didn't think the West Fertilizer Co. facility that exploded Wednesday night in West, Texas, was "going to be on OSHA's radar screen" because it apparently had few employees, despite the fact that it stored highly combustible anhydrous ammonia.
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