Drying incident with weakly exothermic material

An incident occurred which resulted in severe damage to two dryers one containing 100 kg of material, the other 30 kg.

Thermal stability testing had been carried out using DSC and this indicated a heat of decomposition in the region of 200-300 J/g.

Material was found to be stuck under the dryer shaft. This underwent a 'deflagration from a point source of ignition'.