The study of coal dust minimum explosion concentration of subbituminous coal

Abstract

The coal dust explosion tests have been conducted using an explosion chamber 20-L with coal dust sizes of 53–44 µm (average particle size is 48.5 µm) for subbituminous coal from Indonesia. The coal dust explosion has been tested with various energies of the ignitor, i.e., 4.2 kJ, 6.3 kJ, and 8.4 kJ, to obtain the effect of ignitor energy on the coal dust’s Minimum Explosion Concentration (MEC). The results show that the MEC for the 4.2 kJ, 6.3 kJ, and 8.4 kJ ignitor energy are 120 g/m3, 100 g/m3, and 70 g/m3, respectively. The present study in subbituminous coal resulted in a relatively higher MEC compared to previous studies conducted in bituminous coal.