Fire and Explosion Hazards of Liquid Mixtures

Abstract

Fires, explosions, and releases of toxic materials are one of the most serious hazards facing the chemical industry. Flash points are an important parameter used to characterize the fire and explosion hazard posed by liquids. In real-world scenarios, liquid mixtures are more common than pure liquids. The flash point behavior of liquid mixtures, especially those prone to extreme flash point behavior, is introduced in this chapter. The extreme flash point behavior of binary mixtures includes minimum flash point behavior (MinFPB) and maximum flash point behavior (MaxFPB). The minimum flash point value of mixtures exhibiting MinFPB is lower than the flash point value for any of the pure constituent components. Contrarily, the maximum flash point value of mixtures exhibiting MaxFPB is higher than the flash point of any of the pure constituent components. The complex nature of extreme flash points means that flash point estimation of mixtures defies a quick and simple solution. This chapter presents flash point estimation techniques for various types of ideal, non-ideal, organic, and inorganic liquid mixtures.