Abstract
This paper first addresses the question: what is a dust explosion? Afterwards, some specific issues are briefly reviewed: materials that can give dust explosions, factors influencing ignitability and explosibility of dust clouds, the combustion of dust clouds in air, ignition sources that can initiate dust explosions, primary and secondary dust explosions, dust flash fires, explosions of “hybrid mixtures”, and detonation of dust clouds. Subsequently, measures for dust explosion prevention and mitigation are reviewed. The next section presents the case history of an industrial dust explosion catastrophe in China in 2014. In the final section, a brief review is given of some current research issues that are related to the prevention and mitigation of dust explosions. There is a constant need for further research and development in all the areas elucidated in the paper.
Highlights
Eckhoff [1,2] reviewed a selection of case histories from various countries
Factors d to h are influenced by the actual industrial dust cloud generation process and explosion development
In dust explosion mitigation it is a central concern to limit the extent of primary dust explosions to the particular process unit where the explosion started
Summary
The phenomenon named dust explosion is quite simple and easy to envisage in terms of daily life experience. If the cloud is fully or partly confined, the fire can produce a sufficient pressure for the confinement walls to burst, and a “bang” is emitted into the surroundings. The rapid energy that is released in a dust explosion is governed by the chemical reaction: only materials that are not already stable oxides can give dust explosions. This excludes silicates, sulphates, nitrates, carbonates, and phosphates, and, dust clouds of Portland cement, sand, limestone, etc. Natural organic materials (grain, wood, linen, sugar, etc.); synthetic organic materials (plastics, organic pigments, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, etc.); coal and peat; and, metals (aluminium, magnesium, titanium, zinc, iron, etc.)
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