Analysis on research trends with dust explosions by bibliometric approach

Highly destructive combustible dust explosions, which is prone to cause secondary explosion, has been a concern in industrial processes. To understand the current development and status of research on dust explosions, 1276 publications related to dust explosions from 1998 to 2021 were indexed through the Web of Science Core Collection database. CiteSpace and VOSviewer were used to visualize and analyze the collected literature information. The number of articles related to dust explosions has increased from 12 in 1998 to 191 in 2021. China, the United States, and Canada are the major contributors in this field. Dalhousie University, Beijing Institute of Technology, and Dalian University of Technology are at the core of dust explosion research. Wei Gao, Paul Amyotte, and Chi-Min Shu are the most prolific researchers. Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, Powder Technology, and Process Safety and Environmental Protection are the major sources of publications related to dust explosions. The research topic of dust explosions mainly evolves into four aspects: explosion characteristics and influencing factors, research media, explosion suppression, and numerical simulation. New research hotspots have appeared related to gas–dust hybrid mixtures, nanomaterials, and powder suppressants. The results can help researchers in the dust explosion field to quickly determine the research frontier and the overall situation.     

Effect of monoammonium phosphate particle size on flame propagation of aluminum dust cloud

The effect of monoammonium phosphate (NH₄H₂PO₄) particles on 5 μm aluminum dust flames is investigated experimentally and computationally. NH4H2PO4 in three particle size is employed to determine the inhibition efficiency on aluminum flame propagation. Flame inhibition mechanism considering both gas and surface chemistry of aluminum particles is developed. Results show that the inhibition effectiveness monotonously increases as NH₄H₂PO₄ particle size is reduced to 25 μm. Flame morphology and flame microstructure change with the addition of different particle size NH₄H₂PO₄. Small NH₄H₂PO₄ particles within the range studied have a greater reduction in average flame propagation compared to the coarser one. Meanwhile, the fine NH₄H₂PO₄ particles almost decompose completely during the penetration of aluminum flame and then undergo a sufficient chemical interaction with the flame. The simulations indicate that the decomposition products of NH₄H₂PO₄ particles obstruct the oxidation of aluminum particles through flame radical consumption. Additionally, the addition of NH₄H₂PO₄ can reduce the vaporization rate and surface reaction rate of aluminum particles.     

Life cycle assessment as a decision support tool for landfill gas-to energy projects

The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from MSW landfill, and control methods to eliminate or minimize these impacts including energy recovery from landfill gas (LFG) of MSW landfill in Thailand have been evaluated. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used as the analytical tool to evaluate the environmental consequences of landfilling holistically. The economic implications of the control methods are also briefly assessed. The results show that in terms of GHG emissions as well as in terms of economics, it is more advantageous to have a large centralized landfill and produce electricity from the LFG rather than having several small, localized landfills despite significantly lower transportation requirement for the latter case. Sensitivity analysis revealed that the global warming potential was sensitive to gas collection efficiency as well as methane oxidation rate in the landfill. This study shows the utility of a life cycle approach for evaluating LFG-to-energy (LFGTE) projects.     

A comparative study between two ignition sources: Electric igniter versus pyrotechnic igniter

The risk assessment of combustible explosive dust is based on the determination of the probability of dust dispersion, the identification of potential ignition sources and the evaluation of explosion severity. It is achieved in most of cases with the two main experimental normalized devices such as the Hartmann tube (spark ignition) and the 20 L spherical bomb (with two 5 kJ pyrotechnic ignitors).Ignition energy of the 5 kJ ignitor is well calibrated and generates a reproducible ignition. But, on the other hand, this ignition is not punctual and the over pressure produced is nearly 2 bar. Moreover, the pyrotechnic igniter accelerates the combustion with multi ignition points in a large volume and that disturbs the flame propagation. In this way, this ignition source does not allow to analyze the combustion products because the composition of the pyrotechnic igniter was found in the combustion products.This paper deals with the comparison of two ignition sources in the 20 L spherical bomb. Different explosive dusts of great industrial interest are studied with electrical and pyrotechnic ignitors, in order to understand, first, the influence of each type of igniter on the explosion behaviour and then to evaluate the possibility of establishing a correspondence between parameters obtained with these two ignition sources.Severity parameters of nicotinic acid, aluminium powder and titanium alloy were measured by using the two types of ignition system in our 20 L spherical bomb equipped with the Kühner dihedral injector. The explosion overpressure $\mathrm{P}$ and the rate of pressure rise $\left(\raisebox{1ex}{$dP$}\!\left/ \!\raisebox{-1ex}{$dt$}\right.\right)$ were measured in a large range of concentration allowing to propose correlations between electrical and pyrotechnic ignition for each parameter and each type of powder. These correlations aim to link the tests used with two different collections of experimental parameters for the same dust. The relevance of these correlations will be discussed.