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Powder Technology 135 136 (2003) 234 242 www.elsevier.

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A study on the static electrification of powders during pneumatic transportation and the ignition of dust cloud
Masaharu Nifuku *, Hiromi Katoh
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Onogawa 16-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8569, Japan Received 29 November 2002; received in revised form 24 April 2003; accepted 25 April 2003

Abstract Large amounts of powders are being handled in industrial activities, and these are facing static electrification that might lead to dust explosion or fire. Therefore, it is important to know about the static electrification in detail in the powder handling processes to prevent the hazards. The authors investigated the static electrification characteristics such as the relation between the powder charge and dust concentration, transportation velocity, transportation distance, etc., using pneumatic transportation system. Also, the influences of spark duration time, ignition energy and feeding ratio of the ignition energy to initiate the dust explosion were investigated because there is a potential risk of dust explosion due to the static electrification. From the results of the experiments, the information on the static electrification and the ignition of the dust cloud was obtained. This would contribute to maintain safe operation of the powder handling, especially pneumatic transportation, by regulating the transport conditions. D 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Static electrification; Dust explosion; Powder handling; Pneumatic transportation; Powder charge; Ignition energy

1. Introduction Based on the development of industries, large amount of powders are handled in many forms. Thousands of tons of powders (more than 20 million tons annually in Japan), such as paint, chemical fertilizer, grain powder, starch, detergent, etc., are handled in the processes of pulverization, classification, transportation, storage and so on. These accompany static electrification of powders, and the dust clouds produced could be ignited, thus leading to a dust explosion. In Japan, 198 cases of dust explosion (1955 1994) were reported [1], and static electrification could be regarded as the cause initiating the dust explosion. The actual statistics of dust explosions would be more than this number because dust explosions on a small scale might not be reported to the authorities. Also, static electricity often disturbs industrial operations. The static electrification of powders in a pneumatic transportation system was investigated by many research-

* Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +81-29-861-8791. E-mail address: m.nifuku@aist.go.jp (M. Nifuku). 0032-5910/$ - see front matter D 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0032-5910(03)00163-3

ers [2 8]. They investigated the relation between transport conditions (transport rate, air velocity, particle sizes, etc.) and generated electric current and electrostatic charge. However, the influence of dust concentration on the charge generation is not clear and static electrification is not fully understood. Some of them applied a somewhat small experimental apparatus (piping system) to understand practical electrification. Also, some of the results of these investigations could be influenced by the conditions (bent section, valves, etc.) of the transportation pipes. It is important to know about the static electrification in detail in order to maintain safe operation of powder handling. Paying attention to the background mentioned above, the authors investigated the static electrification characteristics (relation between dust concentration, transportation velocity, etc. and the powder charge). Furthermore, transportation is often carried out over a long distance and static electrification is not fully understood. In long distance transportation using a poor conductive pipe, flow of charged particles into the uncharged section of the piping system and flow of the charged particles into the charged section will be repeated. These influence the static electrification.

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Therefore, the influence of the transport distance on static electrification is also investigated. Once the static electricity is produced, the static electricity will be discharged and it could lead to the ignition of the dust cloud. The generation of an ignition source will be influenced by the discharging conditions, and the discharge characteristics will be an important factor for the ignition of the dust cloud, because the ignition of the dust cloud could be regulated by the properties of the electrical discharge. There is much research on the ignitability of a dust cloud [9 13]. However, the detailed characteristics for the ignition of a dust cloud are not known clearly in these studies. Stored energy in the power supply is regarded as the ignition energy in some of the research. Also, the detailed ignition characteristics such as spark duration, feeding rate of the spark energy, dust concentration, etc. are not clearly shown. Based upon this background, the authors investigated the influence of spark duration time, total spark energy, feeding rate of the spark energy and dust concentration to initiate the dust explosion.

2. Experimental Static electrification characteristics were investigated using the pneumatic transportation apparatus shown in Fig. 1. A powder sample is supplied into a horizontal piping system by a powder feeder (table feeder). The powder is recovered by a cyclone and fabric filter. The powder feeding ratio is adjusted by the motor revolution and scraper depth. Electrostatic charge is measured at the measuring section that is composed of five brass pipes (inside diameter, about 53 mm; length, 1 m). The electro-

static capacitance is 236 pF. When an electrostatic voltmeter with full scale 300 V, 1 or 5 kV is connected, the capacitance is 276, 267 or 261 pF, respectively. A pipe with two flow rectifiers (7 7-mm opening, 24-mm-long) is installed in front of the measuring section to improve the dispersion of sample powder. The powder charge (charge to mass) is calculated from the electrostatic charge (capacitance times voltage) and the weight of total powder in the measuring section. The sample used is pulverized coal. The mean diameters are 20 Am (number size basis) and 38 Am (mass size basis). The volume resistivity is 2.3 1014 Vcm. Air velocities were 10, 15, 25, 30 and 35 m/s, and the dust concentration was adjusted to be 50, 70, 100, 150 and 200 g/m3 for each velocity. The temperature was 17 jC and the relative humidity was 44 46% in the laboratory. For long distance pneumatic transportation, a nylon pipe (inside diameter, 6.9 mm; outside diameter, 9.5 mm; volume resistivity, 1.5 109 Vcm) was used. The pipe was installed spirally on the wall of an air-conditioned room (W 3.5 m D 3.5 m H 3.2 m). The pipe length was 100 m. The electrostatic charge was calculated from the capacitance and the voltage of the measuring point. The measuring point was made of aluminium foil (25-cmwide) surrounding the pipe. Capacitor(s) was connected to suppress the voltage at the measuring point. Four measuring points (Nos. 1 to 4) were prepared, and the measuring interval was about 33 m. The capacitances at the measuring point were approximately 0.4 10 7 1.2 10 7 F. The air velocities were 7.5 13.3 m/s. The relative humidity was 40 70%. Standard fly ash (JIS Z8901) was used as the sample (mass-base mean diameter is about 20 Am). The volume resistivity was about 5 109 Vcm at 20 jC and 50% RH.

Fig. 1. Horizontal static electrification apparatus for pneumatic transportation of powders.

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Fig. 2. Discharge waveform.

As for the relation between the static electricity and the dust explosion, ignition characteristics of the dust cloud were investigated. The ignition power supply generates a single pulse. A sample pulse is shown in Fig. 2. The spark duration is 100 Am to 9.9 ms, and the maximum energy output is 1.4 J. The energy value was mainly adjusted by the discharging electric current and pulse width. The explosibility was tested using a Hartmann explosion tube (Fig. 3). A tungsten rod (2-mm-diameter, rounded tip) was used as the electrode. The sample used was coal dust.

3. Results and discussion 3.1. Relation between dust concentration and electrostatic charge The relation between the dust concentration and charge per mass under constant air velocity is shown in Fig. 4. The piping system in front of the measuring section was

Fig. 3. Experimental apparatus for dust explosion.

Fig. 4. Charge per mass of coal by pneumatic transportation.

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grounded and the charge generated in this section was negligible. Also, the powder that the authors supplied tentatively into the measuring section very carefully avoiding the generation of precharge showed similar charging characteristics. Therefore, the precharge that might have been generated prior to the measurement can be regarded to have negligible effect. It is shown that the charge per mass increases according to the increase of dust concentration and peaks at a certain dust concentration (about 50 g/m3). The charge per mass decreases when the dust concentration increases further. The electrostatic charge is generated by contact, friction, collision, separation, etc. Here, let us pay attention to the flow pattern of dust in the air stream. The particle receives a motion force by the air stream along the axis of the pipe and a sedimentation force by gravity. The sedimentation velocity will be expressed approximately as follows [14]: s 4 g cK wf dK 3 cw cL 1

where wf = sedimentation velocity of the particle [m/s]; g = gravitational acceleration (9.8) [m/s2]; cw = coefficient of resistance [ ]; gK = density of the particle [kg/m3]; gL = density of air [kg/m3]; dK = diameter of the particle [m]. The measured value of the true density of the coal particle was 1.9 g/cm3 and gK = 1.9 103 kg/m3; gL = 1.2 kg/m3 at 17 jC; dK = 3.8 10 5 m; cw = 0.44. Applying these values into Eq. (1), wf = 1.3 m/s. This value is smaller than the value along the axis of transportation, and the Reynolds number is approximately 3.6 104 at 17 jC and air velocity 10 m/s. Therefore, the air stream is turbulent. The particles are conveyed along the axis of the pipe receiving up and down motion due to collision and friction between particles and between the particle and the wall. Based on the inside diameter (about 53 mm) and length (5 m) of the measuring section, and assuming that the particles do not stay on the floor of the pipes, the number of contacts between a single particle and the wall is 3 times (at air velocity of 35 m/s) to 12 times (at air velocity of 10 m/s). The total number of contact increases when the dust concentration increases, because the number of particles per unit space increases. The static electrification due to contact, friction, collision, etc. is influenced mainly by the number of contacts and contact area [15]. Taking surface roughness of the particles and pipe, and that the air stream is turbulent, into account, the true contact part of the particle will vary every contact and that the true contact area will be much smaller than the apparent contact area. Therefore, the generated charge at the contact number will be proportional to the area of the first true contact, and the total charge at the contact number n will be expressed as follows [15]: n  n o Qn aSn aA 1 exp 2 s

where s = [1/log(1 k)]; k = s/A; Qn = total charge at the contact number n [C]; Sn = total of the first true contact area at each contact for n contact times [m2]; s = true contact area under single contact [m2]; A = apparent contact area under single contact [m2]; n = number of contacts [ ]; s = saturation constant [s]; a = coefficient [ ]. Therefore, the charge per mass of a particle increases with the increase of contact number and saturates later. The charge per mass will increase as a result that the contact number of the particle increases with the increase of number of the particles per unit space when the dust concentration becomes larger. On the other hand, there is a mechanism that reduces the charge besides the increase mechanism of charge in the process of electrification of substances. New electrification by contact, friction, etc. will be influenced by the formation of an electric field of already electrified substances. This is because that an outside electric field on the contact surface will cause the electron level to fluctuate between the two surfaces. In the case of a particle, the charge outside the contact point produces an electric potential at the contact surface and this disturbs the charge transfer. Accordingly, charge generation by the new contact will be reduced with the increase of total particle charge. The charge will then saturate when the particles repeat the contact [15]. Furthermore, there will be an electric discharge over a certain level of charge. This discharge will accumulate the opposite polarity of the charge, thus reducing the initial charge [15]. Also, there is leak of charge in and on the surface of the substance. This leak will be accelerated at a certain dust concentration. In the authors results, charge saturation with the increase of contact number and charge reduction mechanism will be dominant at the dust concentration of 50 g/ m3, thus reducing the total charge. 3.2. Relation between air velocity and electrostatic charge The relation between air velocity and electrostatic charge is shown in Fig. 5. It is indicated that the charge per mass increases with the increase of air velocity and that it peaks at a certain air velocity. The charge per mass then decreases when the air velocity increases further. The charge of a particle depends on the contact numbers between particles and between the particle and the pipe as mentioned so far. Generally, particles have various sizes and shapes. The air resistance depends on the particle sizes and this leads to the transportation velocity differentials. Therefore, smaller particles acquire higher velocity and repeat contact and collision with other particles and the pipe wall. The numbers of contacts and collisions increase with the increase of air velocity because the contact and collision numbers are proportional to the velocity differentials. The flow pattern is influenced by air velocity [16,17]. Generally, the powders are transported uniformly in the

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velocity. This will lead to the change of the charge generation process. (c) The vertical velocity component of the particle at the time of collision between the particles and the pipe wall will be changed due to the change of particle rotation with the increase of the air velocity. This will influence the charge generation process. In the authors experiment, the above factors interacted and the change of polarity appeared. Above all, factors (a) and (b) might have played major roles, because particle velocity is larger at higher air velocity (35 m/s). 3.3. Electric field strength due to powder charging There is a potential danger of dust explosion due to static electrification. It would be useful to discuss the electric field strength of a charged dust cloud. When there exists charge in a closed surface S (tube radius, R; length, 1 m) in an electric field, the electric field strength on the surface S is expressed as [18]: En
Fig. 5. Charge per mass of coal by pneumatic transportation.

qR 2e0

pipe at higher air velocity [17]. In the authors study, the Reynolds number is approximately 3.6 104 and it is turbulent. Therefore, the numbers of contacts and collisions of the particles per unit time increase, and the forces of the contact, collision, friction, etc. become stronger, with the increase of air velocity, thus supplying more thermal energy and increasing the charge per mass. The charge saturation will appear when the air velocity is increased further because of the motion regulation of particles and the reduction of contact and collision numbers. Also, the charge suppression mechanism as mentioned in Section 3.1 will follow. These will be the reason for charge saturation and decrease of the charge. The possible reasons for the change of charge polarity at the higher air velocity could be as follows: (a) When the air velocity becomes much higher (35 m/s), the flow pattern of the particles will be varied. The numbers of contact and collision between the particles and the pipe wall will decrease. The contact and collision numbers between the larger particles and the smaller particles will be increased. The surface of the particles may be demolished and transformed under this process, and a new charging process will be produced. (b) Temperature change and surface transformation of the contact surface will be accelerated at the time of contact and collision between the particles and the pipe wall and between particle and particle, with the increase of the air

where En = electric field strength on the closed surface S [V/ m]; q = charge density in the closed surface S [C/m3]; R = radius of a tube [m]; e0 = dielectric constant of a vacuum (8.854 10 12) [F/m]. In the authors research, the charge per mass is 4.6 10 8 C/g (coal dust concentration, 50 g/m3; air velocity, 25 m/s) and q 2:3 106 C=m3 In the authors research, the inside diameter of the transportation pipe is about 53 mm and R 2:7 102 m Inserting q and R into Eq. (3), En 3:4 103 V=m This value is much smaller than the breakdown electric field strength of air (3 106 V/m), but there will be an opportunity where En will exceed this value when very poor conductive powder is transported or the powder contacts or collides with insulating substances under extreme conditions. 3.4. Static electrification in long distance transportation The charge using a 100-m-long pipe is shown in Fig. 6. The electrostatic charge (vertical axis) indicates the electrostatic charge that appeared on the measuring point (aluminium foil, 25-cm-wide). Nos. 1 to 4 indicate the

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Fig. 6. Electrostatic charge generated by the transportation of fly ash for 100 m.

measuring points (described in Section 2). A change of charge polarity appeared three times. Similar phenomena were also observed in other transport distances. Therefore, the initial charge decreases with the increase of the transportation distance, and the charge shows wave-like fluctuation. This fluctuation accompanies polarity changes several times. The calculated maximum electric field strength by charged powders in the pipe [18] exceeds 106 V/m, assuming the same amount of charge is accumulated on the powder in the pipe. A methane gas explosion accident while blowing dusty air in a mine was reported. The cause of the accident is regarded as the static electrification of the system [19]. Therefore, it can be regarded that electrical discharge is produced in air and that the powder charge will be released. Once the discharge is generated, the charge of powder decreases rapidly. The possible reasons for the fluctuation of charge could be as follows: (a) Repeated contact and collision of particles, which might result in the charge reduction. (b) Balance of charge generation and neutralization along with the transport distance. (c) Space charge effect that might suppress the charge generation. (d) Discharge due to high electric field strength.

In this experiment, the nylon pipe was hanged spirally on the wall of the air-conditioned room. The effect of the bending of the pipe can be regarded as negligible. This is because that the inside diameter of the nylon pipe is very small (6.9 mm) compared to the radius of the spiraling nylon pipe (1.5 m). The effect of the bend angle on the charge is small, up to 20j of the angle change [7]. Therefore, the authors regarded the results to be similar to the ones by straight transportation. 3.5. Influence of relative humidity on the static electrification The influence of relative humidity on electrification is shown in Fig. 7. The electrostatic charge (vertical axis) indicates the electrostatic charge that appeared on the measuring point (aluminium foil, 25-cm-wide). Nos. 1 to 4 indicate the measuring points (described in Section 2). The charge decreases with the increase of relative humidity. The charge could be regarded to become small above 65% RH, although the data for No. 1 show slight an increase at 65% RH. Static electricity is generated on the contact surface based on the surface (chemical) characteristics. The conditions of the surface and the inside of the substances are influenced by the relative humidity, and the electrical conductivity of both surface and inside of the substances is increased with the increase of the humidity. The charge is reduced accordingly as shown in Fig. 7.

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Fig. 7. Effect of relative humidity on electrostatic charge.

3.6. Influence of spark characteristics on dust explosion The relation between spark (ignition source) duration and the necessary ignition energy is shown in Fig. 8. The coal

Fig. 8. Effect of spark duration time on the ignition energy.

Fig. 9. Relation between spark energy and probability of explosion when coal dust concentration is varied under constant spark duration time.

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dust concentration was 150 g/m3 and spark duration was varied 100 As to 9.9 ms. The ignition energy was larger when the spark duration was shorter. The ignition energy decreases drastically and reaches the bottom value with the increase of the spark duration time. It is necessary to forward the ignition of particles in the vicinity of the ignition source to the other particles in order to continue the explosion. Therefore, the distance between particles, in other words, the number of particles per unit volume of space, influences the ignitability of the dust cloud. Fig. 9 shows the relation between spark energy and ignition probability of coal dust when the spark duration time is 2 ms and that the coal dust cloud concentration varies from 150 to 550 g/m3. It is shown that the ignition probability becomes higher with the increase of the spark energy when the spark duration is kept at a certain value. Also, it is indicated that the ignition probability is higher at a larger coal dust concentration under the same spark energy. This means that the supply of energy from the burning particle to an unburned particle is larger and that the temperature rise becomes quicker when the coal dust concentration is larger, i.e. the distance between particles is smaller. It is necessary to form a flammable gas mixture around a particle to ignite the particle, and the combustion is regulated by the production of flammable components. So, thermal energy must be supplied to the particle

to ignite for more than a certain period of time. In Fig. 8, the ignition energy is maintained at a certain value for a spark duration time over 2 ms, and the ignition energy increases rapidly when the spark duration time becomes less than 2 ms. A chemical reaction to produce a flammable component is necessary in order to form the flammable mixture around the particle, and the chemical reaction velocity is regulated by the amount of thermal supply per unit time, i.e. feeding rate of spark energy. Fig. 10 shows the relation between the feeding rate of the spark energy and the ignition probability. It is shown that the larger the feeding rate of the spark energy, the higher the ignition probability under the same spark duration time. Also, it is shown that the ignition probability is higher, under the same feeding rate of spark energy, when the spark duration is longer. The thermal energy to raise the particle temperature is the sum of the thermal energy from the air surrounding the particle, radiation heat energy from the spark and generating heat energy by the combustion of the particle itself. The ignition probability will increase, if the feeding rate of ignition energy is increased due to the chain reaction of the particle combustion.

4. Conclusions From the results of the experiments on the static electrification of powder in pneumatic transportation and the ignitability of powder, the following results were obtained under the authors experimental conditions. (1) The electrostatic charge on the powder and the pipes depends on the dust concentration and the air velocity in the case of pneumatic transportation. The charge increases, peaks and decreases with increase of the dust concentration and the air velocity. Also, the charge polarity change appeared at an air velocity of more than 30 m/s. (2) The initial charge decreases and fluctuates, experiencing polarity changes, in the case of long distance transportation. (3) The charge decreases with the increase of relative humidity. The charge could be regarded to become small above 65% RH. (4) Under the constant spark duration time, the larger the feeding rate of spark energy, the higher the ignition probability. The ignition probability becomes smaller when the spark duration time is small, even if the feeding rate of spark energy is larger. The above findings will provide useful information for understanding static electrification during pneumatic transportation of powders and preventing the dust explosion accident.

Fig. 10. Relation between feeding rate of spark energy and probability of explosion when spark duration time is varied under constant coal dust concentration.

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M. Nifuku, H. Katoh / Powder Technology 135 136 (2003) 234242 [11] R.K. Eckhoff, Combustion and Flame 24 (1975) 53. [12] R.S. Lee, D.F. Aldis, D.W. Garrett, F.S. Lai, Powder Technology 31 (1982) 51. [13] W. Ishihama, H. Enomoto, T. Komai, M. Umedu, T. Higashi, M. Nifuku, Journal of Japan Society for Safety Engineering 21 (1982) 273 (in Japanese). [14] K. Morikawa, III, Kuuki ni yoru funryutai no yusou (Pneumatic Transportation of Powder), Funryuutai no yusou (Transportation of Powder), Kagaku Kogyo Sha, 1989, p. 21, in Japanese. [15] Y. Murata, Hyomen-Koubunshi to Seidenki (Surface-Polymer and Static Electricity), Kyoritsu Shuppan, 1988, in Japanese. [16] T. Jotaki, Funryutai no Kuki Yusou (Pneumatic Transportation of Powders), Nikkan Kogyo Shimbunsha, 1979, in Japanese. [17] T. Kanou, Funryutai Yusou Souchi (Transportation Equipment for Powders), Nikkan Kogyo Shimbunsha, 1980, in Japanese. [18] D. Halliday, R. Resnick, J. Walker, Fundamentals of Physics Extended, 5th ed., Wiley, New York, 1997, p. 583. [19] Sapporo Mine Safety Inspection Bureau, Seidenki Taisaku Senmon Bukai Houkokusho (A Report of Technical Committee for Static Electricity), March 1988, p. 112, in Japanese.

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