Chelsea, Mass. — City planning officials have given their wholehearted approval for local bakery business Muffin Town to scrap plans for an anhydrous ammonia storage tank and use instead liquid nitrogen to expand its freezing capacity. “One of the big factors was the city considered liquid nitrogen safer than anhydrous ammonia,” John DePriest, director of planning and development, told Green Markets. “Also this change had the support of our fire department, which has been very proactive in these matters.” In fact, DePriest explained, several months ago he joined Muffin Town, the fire department, and several city officials in a table top exercise which developed as a comparison a plan of what would happen during an ammonia leak at the site. In addition, an oil tank farm located in an adjoining community is using liquid nitrogen and, according to DePriest, there have been no problems there. The Linde Group, which has been actively involved for many years developing cryogenic freezing technologies, reports on its website that freezing of food with liquid nitrogen and carbon dioxide is a well-established practice that relies on those gases’ extreme cold temperatures of 320 degrees F as they come into contact with the product. In the case of liquid carbon dioxide, snow forms when the liquid expands and then vaporizes on the product. If released, liquid nitrogen dissipates rather quickly and harmlessly into the environment within approximately 30 minutes. Muffin Town, operated by bakery commissary JSB Industries headquartered in Chelsea, produces muffins, Aesops Bagels, Madeline’s cookies, and other items.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain