Explosion Risk of Solid Biofuels

Dr. Nieves Fernandez-Anez finished her thesis on flammability of biomasses at the Universidad Politecnica of Madrid in 2016, where she was involved in experimental testing and data analyses concerning the explosibility of solid biofuels since her last years of undergraduate study. Afterwards, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher on fire safety at Imperial College of London with Professor Guillermo Rein, and is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Fire Safety and HSE Engineering, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.Blanca Castells graduated from the Mining Engineering Technical School (Technical University of Madrid) with a Bachelor of Mining Technology Engineering in 2015 and an M.Sc. in Mining Engineering in 2017. She began her Ph.D. studies (at the same university) in 2017, focusing on the flammability properties of solid biomasses and biomass efficiency improvement through the torrefaction process. Since 2017, she has been working at the Laboratorio Oficial Madariaga, carrying out research activities such as flammability and thermal tests, but also as a mining engineer, in the context of an industrial safety for mining operations initiative commissioned by the Government of Spain.Isabel Amez Arenillas has been a Ph.D. student in the field of Industrial Safety at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) since 2018. Her research chiefly focuses on the flammability characteristics of ternary and quaternary gas mixtures regarding the flammability interval. From 2017 to 2019, she worked as a project engineer at the Laboratorio Oficial Madariaga (LOM), where she developed R&D projects in the Technical Assistance and Research Department and collaborated with the Quality Department in the context of equipment management.Prof. Garcia-Torrent has been researching dust explosions for more than 30 years. He is a Professor at the Department of Energy and Fuels at the Universidad Politecnica of Madrid, aswell as the Head of the Laboratorio Oficial Mariaga. He was previously Head of the Flammable Substances Division at the same institution, which is the only Spanish laboratory that offers explosiveness testing that allows combustible dust to be characterized. He also leads the postgraduate program on explosive atmospheres at the Universidad Politecnica of Madrid, which includes a module on dust explosions.The authors have released several publications on the topic, and have extensive experimental and theoretical experience in the field of dust explosions.

• 1.Solid fuels: fossil and renewable combustible products.- 2.Solid biofuels.- 3.Risk in handling solid fuels.- 4.Flammability parameters.- 5.Composition and characteristics.- 6.Fuel mixtures.- 7.Accidents.- 8.Legislation.- 9.Safety measures.- 10.Conclusions and future trends.