Evaluation of the Risk Factors on Coal Dust Explosion in Warehouse

¹ Carbon Capture, Storage and Utilization Research Laboratory Department of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, 10330 Bangkok, Thailand
² Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Rajamangala University of Technology Krungthep, Bangkok 10120, Thailand

Abstract

Coal has been one of the major energy sources in the world. Many industries use coal as a main fuel. A coal dust explosion is one of the main hazards of coal utilization because of its massive damage. Coal dust explosion hazards involve the combustible fine dusts or other small particles that present a fire or deflagration hazard when suspended at a sufficient concentration in air or some other oxidizing medium. When such materials are contained in an enclosure, they present an explosion hazard. To eliminate the possibility of dust explosions by ensuring that the dust concentration does not exceed the minimum explosibility concentration (MEC) or the amount of dust per unit volume of air below which the dust cloud cannot propagate flame. Therefore, the objective of this work is to measure the MEC for coal dust explosion with the various conditions of coal storage such as the particle size, moisture of coal, degree of dispersion and delayed time of ignition source to prevent the coal dust explosion which aims to study and design the explosion safety measures for coal dust handing installations. The results show that smaller size of particle, low moisture in coal and high coal dust dispersion can increase the chance or risk of dust explosion. Also, the shorter time of dust dispersion exposes to ignition source can enhance the possibility of explosion in coal storage.