A Series To Learn Process safety

Estimating LEL and Flash

The lower explosive limit (LEL) is the minimum concentration of a vapor in air that will support a flame when ignited. The flash point is the lowest temperature of a liquid that produces sufficient vapor for an open flame to ignite in air. Gooding provides ways to estimate these two important safety-related properties. The methods make use of the following observed rules:

1. The LEL occurs at about 50% of the stoichiometric oxidation concentration at ambient temperature and pressure. 2. The flash point occurs at about the temperature at which the liquid has a vapor pressure equal to the LEL partial pressure. 3. It follows then, that knowing the stoichiometry and having a vapor pressure chart, one can determine the LEL and flash point. Also if either the LEL or flash point is known, a vapor pressure chart can be used to estimate the other.

Example: Estimate the LEL and flash point for ethanol The oxidation (combustion) equation is: C2H5OH + 3O2 = 2CO2 + 3H2O For 1 mol of ethanol we need: 3 mols of O2 or 3/0.21 = 14.28 mols of air. The stoichiometric concentration of ethanol in air is thus 1/15.28 = 0.0654mol fraction. The LEL is 50% of this or 0.0327 mol fraction. This matches the reported value of 3.3% by volume. The partial pressure of LEL ethanol is 0.0327 atm. The temperature that produces a vapor pressure of 0.0327atm is 11C, which is our predicted flash point. This is close to the reported 13C. The Gooding article presents graphs that show high accuracy for these methods Source : Gooding, Charles H., Estimating Flash Point and Lower Explosive Limit,
Chemical Engineering, December, 12, 1983.

Protesha Sinergy

A Series To Learn Process safety

Question : Flash point of a mixture is that temperature at which Pmix(T) reaches the LFL. Can anybody provide a simple correlation or demystify what my lecturer is trying to say? Would it be cheeky to ask for a simple example to shed some light on an extremely baffled student ?
Answer : The flash point is the lowest temperature at which a liquid gives off

enough vapour to form a flammable air-vapour mixture near its surface. The lower the flash point, the greater the fire hazard. The flash point is an approximate value and should not be taken as a sharp dividing line between safe and hazardous conditions. The flash point is determined by a variety of test methods which give different results. Two types of methods are abbreviated as OC (open cup) and CC (closed cup). Question : would you know of a way of calculating the flash point based on that data? (which are hydrocarbon mixtures) Flash point = 0.77(ASTM 5% in F - 150 F) The ASTM 5% refers to the 5 volume % temperature of the ASTM distillation of the petroleum product. The flash point occurs at about the temperature at which the liquid has a vapor pressure equal to the LFL partial pressure. For example, ethanol has a LFL of 3.3 volume%. The LFL partial pressure is therefore 0.033 atm. The temperature that produces a vapor pressure of 0.033 atm is 11C, which is the predicted flash point. This is close to the reported flash point of 13C (see for example NFPA 325). The Antoine equation to find temperature that produces LFL partial pressure.
Question : how you have got the partial pressure from the LFL;

Answer : This equation for estimating the flash point of petroleum products

is it just LFL/100 ? and would that be the same if my partial pressure values were in kPa?
Answer : The LFL partial pressure is LFL (in volume %)/100*atmospheric

pressure. So for the example of ethanol with LFL of 3.3 vol%, the LFL partial pressure is 3.3/100 * 1 atm = 0.033 atm or 3.3/100 * 1.013 bar = 0.0334 bar or 3.3/100 * 101.3 kPa = 3.34 kPa

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