With conditions worsening, how will the Orange County chemical crisis get resolved?

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The battle to keep a highly toxic chemical from exploding took a step backward Saturday.The temperature in a critically failing tank filled with a highly toxic chemical and at risk of exploding in Orange County is rising, not falling, officials said.By Saturday morning, the temperature in the pressurized tank at an aerospace firm in Garden Grove was 90 degrees, up from 77 degrees a day earlier.Temperatures are increasing about a degree per hour, Craig Covey, an Orange County Fire Authority division chief, said Saturday morning.

But with the chemical crisis in its third day, new details are offering more insight into how it could be resolved, though no one is sure when.The question, experts say, is whether officials can somehow deal with the dangerous chemicals in a way that does not end in a blast or the type of spill that causes environmental degradation.The Garden Grove facility neighbors an elementary school and residential neighborhood.Sean Greene LOS ANGELES TIMESAn increase in temperature raises the risk of an explosion.The boiling point of the chemical inside the tank, methyl methacrylate, is 101 degrees Celsius.

The temperature gauge on the tank detects temperatures only up to 100 degrees.Officials haven’t disclosed at what particular temperature would they think that an explosion is imminent.It’s not necessarily the case that the tank would explode at 101 degrees, said Elias Picazo, assistant professor of chemistry at USC.“It depends on the integrity of the tank, and the composition of the tank, and the pressure capacity of the tank,” Picazo said.

“But, yes, above 100, the pressure starts to increase dramatically, because the liquid phase becomes gas phase, and gas takes up any space available.It’ll take up more volume and become highly pressurized.”The fact is that the temperature in the tank indicates that the liquid MMA molecules — monomers, esse...