Agamassan

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Aatomic1 (talk | contribs) at 08:00, 13 April 2007. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Agamassan (aga) is a substrate used to safely absorb acetylene and thus allow the transport, storage and commercial explotation of an otherwise unstable gas. It was developed by Nobel Laureate Gustaf Dalén who would later invent the AGA cooker

Acetylene can readily explode when in liquid/solid form or if pressurised beyond approx 100 kPa. (Dalen was blinded in an acetylene explosion).

In 1896, the French chemists, Claude and Hess, discovered that acetone dissolved large quantities of acetylene. While the resulting solution was no longer explosive, as the liquid was reduced by consumption or by cooling, and explosive acetylene gas would still be produced in the space above the surface of the liquid.

It is shipped and stored dissolved in acetone or dimethylformamide (DMF), contained in a metal cylinder with porous filling (Agamassan), which renders it safe to transport and use.