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 containing W element 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.

Hydrogen energy attracts an amount of attention as an environmentally friendly and sustainable energy source. However, hydrogen is also flammable. Hydrogen fires and explosions might occur in wet-dust-removal systems if accumulated aluminum dust reacts with water. Hydrogen inhibition is a safe method to address these issues. For this purpose, we used sodium citrate, a renewable and nontoxic raw material to inhibit H₂ formation. Specifically, hydrogen inhibition experiments with sodium citrate were carried out using custom-built equipment developed by our research group. When the concentration of sodium citrate solution was in the range of 0.4–4.0 g/L, a protective coating was formed on the surface of the Al particles, which prevented them from contacting with water. The inhibitory effect was achieved when the concentration of sodium citrate was in a certain range, and too much or too little addition may reduce the inhibitory effect. In this paper, we also discuss the economic aspects of H₂ inhibition with this method because it offers excellent safety advantages and could be incorporated on a large scale. Such an intrinsic safety design of H₂ inhibition to control explosions in wet-dust-removal systems could be applied to ensure the safety of other systems, such as nuclear reactors.