Large-Scale Experimental Investigation of the Fire Characteristics Parameters of Methanol in Coal Chemical Industry

Abstract

A steel channel with the size of 30×2×1.2 m was made to simulate the full surface fire of 50000 m3methanol tank in coal-to-olefins industry. Some fire characteristic parameters of methanol were investigated, including flame spread rate, flame height, temperature distribution and radiation heat flux distribution. It is found that the flame spread rate of methanol is 1.98 m/s and the flame height could reach to 3.2 m. The temperature of methanol flame is first up and then down with the increase of height, while the highest temperature is 768oC. It is also found that the radiation heat flux of methanol flame is in the changes between 4.4 kW/m2and 12.2 kW/m2. The feature of methanol fire is different from the normal oil fire, which is worth for us to pay more attention.