Explosion characteristics of blast furnace gas

Abstract

The main focus of this contribution is the explosion characteristics and hazards arising from the blast furnace gas. Primarily, these are the hazards of fire and explosion induced by flammable components of blast furnace gas. In order to prevent explosions when storing and handling blast furnace gas it is necessary to know the explosion limits of individual gas components and its gas mixtures in mixture with air. However, blast furnace gas from different blast furnace can vary significantly in its composition. Therefore, for each gas composition the explosion limits would have to be determined. This would require a considerable amount of time and effort. Due to this fact, the explosion limits of blast furnace gas are frequently referred to only by the hydrogen fraction of the gas mixture in the safety-relevant literature. In reality as blast furnace gas consists of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and further residual gases the explosion limits are generally over or underestimated.