Flammability of engineered wood pyrolysis gases at anaerobic condition

Abstract

This study aims to quantify the flammability limits of the pyrolysate gases produced from thermally decomposed medium density fibreboard (MDF) and plywood. Finding the flammability limits of the pyrolysate gases is believed to assist in studying the smoke explosion phenomena as smoke explosion is known to be caused by gradual transformation of the oxygen and smoke gas mixture to a flammable mix.A novel gas generation apparatus is developed to generate pyrolysate products from thermally decomposed engineered wood materials, filter the aerosols and condensates, and store the pyrolysate gas in a sealed chamber. The flammability of the pyrolysate gas is then tested in a flammability testing apparatus similar to the apparatus developed by the U.S. Bureau of Mines. The operation of the flammability test apparatus is verified by measuring the flammability limits of methane. The flammability limits of MDF and plywood pyrolysate gases found by experiments are in good agreement with the flammability limits found based on the species distribution of engineered wood pyrolysis, reported by other researchers. Quantifying the flammability characteristics of engineered wood pyrolysate gases is part of ongoing research to understand the effect of smoke species on fire behaviour and on the occurrence of smoke explosion.