Experimental investigation on suppression of methane explosion using KHCO3/zeolite composite powder

An efficient KHCO3/zeolite composite powder was prepared mechanochemically for methane explosions suppression. The suppression performance of the composite powder was investigated using a 20 L spherical explosion system. The suppression mechanism was elucidated by the analysis of pyrolysis characteristics, explosion products, and KHCO3 suppression kinetic model. Results indicate that the composite powder significantly improved dispersion and exhibited suppression performance better than KHCO3. The addition of 0.1 g/L of the composite powder with 45 wt% KHCO3 loading had excellent inhibition effect in different concentrations explosion, and for 7 vol% methane explosion, it performed the best inhibition effect, where the maximum explosion pressure (Pmax) and maximum explosion pressure rise rate ((dP/dt)max) were reduced by 85.76% and 94.59%, respectively. The suppression effects of KHCO3/zeolite composite powder involved the endothermic and barrier effects, adsorbing free radicals and consuming of H and OH radicals by Na+ and KHCO3 decomposition products.