Compounds Produced by the Pyrolysis of Powders and Dusts Present in the Alimentary Industry

Abstract

ABSTRACT Under certain conditions dust explosions occur in the alimentary industry. Following ATEX and other guidelines have not eliminated accidents. Therefore, more knowledge is needed. The current work delivers experimental results describing phase transitions and decomposition of dusts. Dusts from wheat flour, chili powder, corn starch, milk powder, cocoa powder, and by-product of grain are investigated. The temperature of pyrolisation has been identified using TGA to be in the range [250°C, 600°C] in air and [300°C, 450°C] in nitrogen. It was found that the compositions of the pyrolysis gases depend on temperature. Carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrogen were the main contributors to the pyrolysis gases. The distributions are described with a polynomial or Gaussian fit. The current paper proposes coefficients for Gaussian polynomials expressing the concentration for the four primary pyrolysis gases.