Rapid and efficient removal of CO in CH4 and CH4/coal dust hybrid explosions: A novel approach of spraying catalyst powder

Abstract

A novel approach of spraying catalyst powder (SCP), based on copper manganese oxide catalyst, has been proposed for CO removal in both CH4 and CH4/coal dust hybrid explosions. The CO removal performance and mechanism of SCP approach in both CH4 and CH4/coal dust hybrid explosions were deeply studied with a standard 20L spherical chamber. The results show with application of SCP approach the CO concentration is decreasing obviously. When adding 200 g/m3 Cu/Mn catalyst, the CO removal efficiency in CH4 explosions and 8% CH4/coal dust hybrid explosions is up to 43.2% and 98.1%, respectively. The remarkable CO removal efficiency is mainly caused by the combination of suppression effect and catalytic oxidation. Inert Al2O3 powder with faint CO catalytic activity was added to find out the influence of suppression effect on CO production. Results demonstrated that suppression effect may promote CO production by lowering explosion temperature in CH4 explosions, while restrain CO production by weakening pyrolysis process of coal dust in CH4/coal dust hybrid explosions. Therefore, SCP approach exhibited better CO removal performance in CH4/coal dust hybrid explosions. Especially, there is an optimum concentration of catalyst powder for CO removal in CH4 explosion owing to the combined effect of catalytic oxidation and suppression behavior. This method offers a novel perspective for CO fast removal in explosion accidents and is promising for practical application in emergence rescue.