Analysis and prediction model of the minimum explosion concentration of plastic dust in gaseous fuel environments

Abstract

Polyethylene dust and polypropene dust were selected to measure the minimum explosion concentration in three kinds of gaseous fuel environments. The results show that the MEC of polyethylene dust with higher apparent activation energy decreased more significantly, and the plastic dust showed higher explosion sensitivity for the gaseous fuel with high combustion heat. The explosion mechanism for plastic dust in gaseous fuel environments was proposed with the global reaction kinetics of plastic pyrolysis, and it suggests that the gaseous fuels reduce the apparent activation energy of plastic dust and provide additional heat for the plastic dust explosion. A corresponding prediction model for the minimum explosion concentration of plastic dust was established. The new model has good applicability for the data obtained in this work and the data in the previous reference.