I have a Chemical specialization in the secondary school (but we obviously didn't study too much about explosives).
There are some details that I don't like. The ammonium nitrate is good to make explosives because it has many nitrogens and many oxigens, IIRC it is not important that the ammonia is "bounded" to the nitrate (it's even only an ionic bound).
My concern is that they tested that after the chemical reaction, there is no remaining ammonium nitrate. But apparently they didn't test if it was still useful to make explosives. (Note: This test can be dangerous, don't try this at home.)
err, well the Idea here i think is that the reason ammonium nitrate makes a good oxidizer for explosives is because of its weak bonds. The exchange of atoms lowers the chemical energy, and lowers the fertilizer's efficacy as an oxidizer.
I would of thought it would of lowered the fertilizer's efficacy as a fertilizer as well... I'm not a chemist though.
There are some details that I don't like. The ammonium nitrate is good to make explosives because it has many nitrogens and many oxigens, IIRC it is not important that the ammonia is "bounded" to the nitrate (it's even only an ionic bound).
The mix that they are proposing doen't solves this problem, the nitrogens and oxigens are still there. For example, the potassium nitrate is an oxidizer and can be used to make explosives ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_nitrate#Oxidizer ). The iron nitrate is an oxidizer too ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron(III)_nitrate ) but I really don't know whether it can be used to make explosives.
My concern is that they tested that after the chemical reaction, there is no remaining ammonium nitrate. But apparently they didn't test if it was still useful to make explosives. (Note: This test can be dangerous, don't try this at home.)