Oxygen balance is an expression that is used to indicate the degree to which an explosive can be oxidized. If an explo-sive molecule contains just enough oxygen to convert all of its carbon to carbon dioxide, all of its hydrogen to water, and all of its metal to metal oxide with no excess, the mol-ecule is said to have a zero oxygen balance. The molecule is said to have a positive oxygen balance if it contains more oxygen than is needed and a negative oxygen balance if it contains less oxygen than is needed.
Substances which have an unfavourable influence on the oxygen balance (and can be measured using parameters such as BOD, COD, etc.).
