OFR-104-78 Suppression Of Dust Explosions In Coal Mines: Use Of A Stirred Reactor To Test Mechanisms Of Reaction Of Coal Dust Flames

A stirred reactor (SR) combustion system has been developed to gather information on the mechanisms of ignition and flame propagation of coal dust under conditions similar to those found in coal dust explosion flames. The prime scaling variable considered in this study is that of rapid particle heating (between 105 and 106°K/sec) which is accomplished by means of turbulent mixing during combustion. The SR combustors tested in this study have consisted basically of spheres hollowed in the centers of refractory housings. Coal and air mixtures have been injected into the spherical combustion chambers through a single jet, two opposed jets or four opposed jets. The diameters of the jets have ranged from 0.63 to 0.22 cm. The volumes of the combustion chambers have ranged from 1.0 to 0.2 liters. The reactors have been equipped with thermocouples embedded in the combustion chamber wall as well as a thermocouple located in the exhaust gas stream. In the latter versions of the SR, provisions were made for both solid sampling and gas sampling of the reactant stream exiting from the combustion chamber. Experiments have been carried out using pulverized bituminous coal. The coal has been reacted in an SR in mixtures of air and air/nitrogen. These experiments have provided information on the mode of ignition of the coal as well as yielding information on the kinetics of coal pyrolysis through the use of SR theory. Ash tests performed on the reacted samples collected from the SR indicated that the majority of the values of weight loss percentage were between 60 and 70 percent. The percentages of weight loss were relatively unaffected by changes in temperature which varied between 1100 and 1700°K and by changes in residence time which varied between 10 and 20 millisec. Volatile matter tests performed on the samples indicated that the volatile matter left in the char ranged from 3 to 20 percent of the original content. By assuming that all the mass loss was due solely to pyrolysis with no combustion occurring at the particle surface, Q-factors for each test have been calculated. The results of these calculations indicate an average value of Q equal to 1.88. This finding shows that the majority of mass loss can be attributed to pyrolysis. The fact that the extent of reaction varies only slightly over the range of test conditions has been examined in the context of the two component hypothesis of coal constitution. This approach leads to the conclusion that the reaction of the "easily evolved" component VMI is extremely rapid and that the majority of it is removed from the coal in times less than the residence time in the system. This means that the volatile residue remaining in the char can be considered to consist of component II, VMII. If the mass fraction of VMI = 0, then an activation energy of 18.0 kcal is obtained for the pyrolysis reaction. If the mass fraction is assumed to be 0.75, the activation energy increases to 31.2 kcal.