Explosion of complex hybrid mixtures

With the terms “complex hybrid mixtures”, we mean mixtures made of two or more combustible dusts mixed with flammable gas or vapors in air (or another comburent). In this work, the flammability and explosion behaviour of selected complex hybrid mixtures was studied. In particular, we investigated mixtures of nicotinic acid, lycopodium and methane. We performed explosion tests in the 20-L explosion vessel at different overall (nicotinic plus lycopodium) dust concentrations, nicotinic acid/lycopodium ratios, and methane concentrations. An exceptional behaviour (in terms of unexpected values of rate of pressure rise and pressure) was found for the complex hybrid mixtures containing lycopodium and nicotinic acid in equal amounts. This mixture was found to be much more reactive than all the other dust mixtures, whatever the dust concentration and the methane content.