Fire hazard evaluation of activated carbons: Pyrolysis kinetic parameters analyses and model development

• Published in: Journal of thermal analysis and calorimetry 2020, Vol.139 (1), p.441-449
• Main Authors: Lei, Qingqing, Xie, Qiyuan, Ding, Yanwei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analytical Chemistry; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Inorganic Chemistry; Measurement Science and Instrumentation; Physical Chemistry; Polymer Sciences
• ISSN: 1388-6150; 1588-2926
• DOI: 10.1007/s10973-019-08417-z

Activated carbons are widely used in the iodine adsorbers in nuclear plants, but little information about their combustibility is available for fire engineers. Series of TGA experiments were conducted for activated carbons, charcoal and XPS foam. The results show that the activated carbons oxidize strongly in air atmosphere but little in N 2 atmosphere. The calculated activation energies of the wood AC, anthracite AC and coconut shell AC are, respectively, 100.56, 96.34 and 91.00 kJ mol −1 , which are larger than that of the XPS foam, 55.95 kJ mol −1 . However, the calculated activation energies of impregnated coconut shell activated carbon is 48.60 kJ mol −1 , which is smaller than that of XPS foam. A new parameter, A 12 , is introduced to describe the amount of evaporative mass fraction during the fast pyrolysis stage. Additionally, the ( T p , DTG p ) map and quarter division method is introduced to compare fire hazard of different materials. Finally, a quantitative fire hazard evaluation model is developed based on four important parameters: E , DTG p , T p and A 12 . The calculated Relative Fire Safety Factors by this model for wood AC, anthracite AC, coconut shell AC, impregnated coconut shell activated carbon, charcoal and XPS foam are 1.49, 1.91, 1.51, 1.37 and 1.0, respectively.