Flammability limits, explosion pressures, and applicability of Le Chatelier's rule to binary alkane-nitrous oxide mixtures

•Lower and upper flammability limits (LFL and UFL) and explosion pressures of binary alkane-N2O mixtures are investigated.•Binary alkane-N2O mixtures exhibit smaller LFLs than corresponding binary alkane-O2 mixtures.•For binary alkane-N2O mixtures, LFL and UFL can be predicted using the Le Chatelier's formulae.

This study investigates the flammability limits and explosion pressures of alkane-alkane-nitrous-oxide (N2O) mixtures and corresponding alkane-alkane-O2 mixtures at an initial pressure of 101.3 kPa and an initial temperature of approximately 20 °C. In addition, the present study assesses whether Le Chatelier's rule holds for binary alkane mixtures in N2O. In this study, methane (CH4), ethane (C2H6), propane (C3H8), n-butane (C4H10), and n-pentane (C5H12) were used as fuels. The results clearly indicated that the lower and upper flammability limits of binary alkane-N2O mixtures are smaller than those of the corresponding binary alkane-O2 mixtures. Furthermore, Le Chatelier's formula successfully predicted the lower and upper flammability limits of binary alkane mixtures in N2O.