http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonia
As a fuel
Ammonia was used during
World War II to power buses in Belgium, and in engine and solar energy applications prior to 1900. Liquid ammonia was used as the fuel of the rocket airplane, the
X-15. Although not as powerful as other fuels, it left no soot in the reusable rocket engine and its density approximately matches that for the oxidizer, liquid oxygen, which simplified the aircraft's design.
[edit] As a vehicle fuel
Ammonia is proposed as a practical and clean alternative to
fossil fuel for
internal combustion engines[22]. The biggest obstacle is the enormous increase in production required since present production, although the second most produced chemical, is a very small fraction of world petroleum usage. Ammonia has no more serious issues, as an alternative vehicle fuel compared to petrol or diesel, including toxicity, flammability, use in engines, pollution, energy density
[23][24].It does requires twice the storage volume of petrol/diesel. It can run in existing engines. It is already widely produced and distributed, and can be manufactured from renewable energy sources, coal or nuclear power. The main down side is that overall it is significantly less efficient than batteries. The 60 MW Rjukan dam in Telemark Norway, was producing ammonia via electrolysis of water for many years from 1913 producing fertilizer for much of Europe. Ammonia is already produced, transported and stored on a vast scale. In combination with coal gas it was used to run 20 buses on 8 routes covering many tens of thousands of miles with no injuries or engine damage.
[25]It can be used in existing engines with only minor modifications to carburetors / injectors. If produced from coal, the CO2 can be readily sequestrated.
[26][27] (the combustion products are nitrogen and water). In 1981 a Canadian company converted a 1981 Chevrolet Impala to operate using ammonia as fuel.
[28][29] The use of ammonia as fuel continues to be discussed.
[30] There are prototype solid state processes to use electricity to convert nitrogen and water directly to ammonia, which are claimed to be cheaper, more efficient and capable of much smaller scale application ie to otherwise stranded assets such as remote wind turbines.
[31]
The calorific value of ammonia is 22.5 MJ/kg (9690
BTU/lb) which is about half that of diesel. In a normal engine, in which the water vapor is not condensed, the calorific value of ammonia will be about 21% less than this figure.
I have a BS in Chemistry, but I don't work in my field so I forgot more than I ever learned.
You have to find out what kind of ammonia was in the oil or what compounds it formed in the oil. If you don't have access to a chromatograph that would be difficult.
The combustion of ammonia yields oxides of nitrogen and water.
There is a reason it is sitting in a warehouse. You could end up killing yourself with the exhaust. There is probably some federal regulation about burning chemical waste as a motor vehicle fuel too. There are also regs on the transportation and storage of hazardous materials.