High Speed Measurement of the Lower Flammable Limits in a Rapidly Changing Vapour Stream

This paper presents an incident in a fluid bed dryer exhaust system and the work carried out as a result to understand the flammable concentration 'profiles' in the exhaust. It will discuss the inadequacies of commercially available industrial LFL measuring devices for measuring transient concentrations of vapour, resulting in the development of a custom FTIR (Fourier Transform InfraRed) measurement device. Data from this device will be presented and the implications for drying processes are discussed.