Study of a hydrogen inhibition method with sodium tungstate for wet aluminum dust removal systems

Abstract

Hydrogen, which can be produced due to the accumulation of aluminum dust that reacts with water in wet dust removal systems, is a fire and explosion hazard. To reduce hydrogen production, sodium tungstate is used in hydrogen inhibition experiments to inhibit the reaction between aluminum dust and water. The purity of the aluminum powder was 95.15%, analyzed with X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF). Each of the hydrogen inhibition experiments lasted for 12 h. In addition, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to characterize the surface morphology and composition of particles before and after the experiments. There was nearly no hydrogen produced when the concentration of the sodium tungstate solution reached 100 g/L. The results show that a protective coating containingWelement was formed on the surface of the aluminum particles after the reaction with sodium tungstate, and the coating prevented the aluminum particles from contacting with water.