The suppression and CO elimination performance of Co3O4 dust cloud for methane-air mixture explosion

Abstract

This paper experimentally studied the effect of Co₃O₄ dust clouds on the methane-air mixture explosion characteristics and post-explosion CO concentration, aiming to propose a novel method for simultaneously suppressing explosion and eliminating CO product. The Co₃O₄ catalyst was synthesized utilizing the co-precipitation method. We varied the methane concentration and Co₃O₄ dust cloud concentration to investigate their effects on the flame propagation behavior, maximum explosion overpressure ($P_m$), flame combustion time ($t_c$), and the gaseous product concentration. The hazard of the gaseous product was evaluated by the effective escape time ($t_e$) based on the Fraction Effective Dose (FED) mathematical model. The results demonstrated that the Co₃O₄ dust cloud could significantly reduce the explosion severity and CO concentration. Furthermore, the higher the concentration of Co₃O₄ dust clouds, the more significant the explosion suppression and CO elimination performance, which was as a result of the significant increase in the contact area and collision probability between the Co₃O₄ particles and the reaction components increased. Compared to traditional inhibitors that only reduce the severity of an explosion, Co₃O₄ could not only significantly reduce the explosion severity, but also quickly eliminate post-detonation CO. The method proposed in this paper could effectively reduce the hazard of methane-air mixture explosion, which was of great practical significance for ensuring the safety of personnel involved in the risk.