Green explosives solutions for the sustainable mining, construction and civil explosives industries
Free of Ammonia and Nitrate salts,
No toxic NOx gas and no nitrate leeching
Independent of ammonium nitrate
Over 90% reduction in CO2 emissions
Equal performance to ANE
Introducing Hypex Bio nitrate free emulsion technology
Sustainable explosives with paradigm shift potential
Hypex Bio is a nitrate free emulsion explosive developed for use in civil underground and surface mining and construction rock blasting operations. Hypex Bio is an abbreviation for “Hydrogen peroxide explosive – biodegradable” and implies the use of hydrogen peroxide as a replacement for nitrate salts as primary oxidizer.
Hydrogen peroxide (HP) decomposes to water and oxygen and therefore is an attractive alternative oxidizer compared to the industry standard – Ammonium nitrate (AN).Traditional nitrate and AN based explosives generate high levels of toxic nitric oxide gas (NOx) in post detonation fumes as a result of the high nitrogen content of the oxidizer. These toxic fumes are very harmful to humans and pose serious health and environmental risks. Industries heavily dependent on rock blasting must manage these gases which limits operational abilities and may cause significant production inefficiencies, environmental constraints and/or significant ventilation infrastructure which leads to high costs.
AN-based explosives leave residue nitrates in the blasted rock. These nitrates are dissolved by water circulating or flowing through the muck. The nitrates must be removed from the water before it is released to the recipient. This implies significant investments in water treatment plants, dam infrastructure and strict environmental measures.
Hypex Bio does not contain any nitrogen nor any other compound which lead to similar contamination results. Upon detonation, the Hypex emulsion decomposes to water steam, carbon dioxide and a minimal amount of carbon monoxide without any NOx gas. If the Hypex emulsion is left undetonated in a rock mass, it will decompose to water and residue components which does not lead to any nitrate environmental issues downstream.
By replacing nitrate based explosives with Hypex significant savings in ventilation and water treatment infrastructure may be achieved in combination with improved production cycles. Further, tremendous CO2 emission savings can be achieved by migrating to Hypex Bio.
The team behind Hypex Bio believes the technology represents the first commercially available nitrate free emulsion explosive. Hypex offers a paradigm shift for the civil explosives markets and support the construction and extractive industries to fulfill the challenging but necessary environmental and sustainability targets set by the governments of the world.
Hypex Emulsion
The Hypex Bio technology and product have been developed and extensively tested by a competent team based in Stockholm Sweden. Testing has been done in partnership with strong mining, chemical and production partners. The first Hypex emulsion products are fully CE certified, transport regulation (UN/ADR) approved with patents pending.
The Hypex emulsion may be pumped and charged using similar or identical procedures used for AN based emulsions (i.e bulk loading using a charging hose with chemical, delayed, in-situ sensitization) in identical or very similar drill patterns commonly used in the underground or surface extractive industries.
Similarly to the status-quo, Hypex emulsion is fully waterproof and is not an explosive until sensitization is achieved. This can be achieved either by mechanical addition of microballoons or by chemical sensitization. This allows for a wide array of in situ (in-hole) densities and sensitivity ranges.
Production can be done in a cold emulsification process, functional down to +5 °C, and does not exhibit any crystallization issues.
The emulsion is stable in moderate temperatures for significant time periods and is comparable, or better, to AN based emulsions in detonation speeds, fragmentation and texture.
Hydrogen peroxide produced in Europe generates significantly less carbon dioxide emissions compared to the production of ammonium nitrate. Life cycle analysis shows that for products produced in Scandinavia, an excess of 90 % reduction of CO2 emissions are achievable.
Vision
Our vision is to introduce and supply a new industry standard for civil bulk and packaged emulsion explosives products with significantly improved environmental aspects.
Mission
Our mission is to be the customer’s first choice for sustainable explosives solutions and to be the leading global partner for the supply and support of such technology to improve operational economics and assist in sustainability improvements of the mining and construction industry.
