'That, in turn, triggered a cascade of secondary dust explosions.'įortunately, in the instance above, the birthday boy seems to have survived another year unscathed - despite the catastrophic celebration. Sugar conveying system design should work to eliminate this risk. POWDERED SUGAR Powdered sugar is highly flammable and explosive. 'The primary explosion occurred inside a sugar conveyor located beneath two sugar-storage silos that were inadequately designed and had allowed a build-up of sugar dust,' Reuters wrote. Spiroflow In The News Sugar Conveying Considerations Choosing Sugar Conveying Systems Scroll Down SUGAR CONVEYING CHALLENGES: GRANULATED VS. In 2008, 14 people died from an explosion at the Imperial Sugar plant in Georgia, Reuters reported. Sugar's chemical reaction should not be used for a fun party trick. 'Fine powders can have very large surface areas, making materials such as flour and sugar, which barely burn when in bulk form, explosive enough to demolish a factory.' Make a hole in the sand and put about 50 mL of ethanol into the bowl. Furthermore, the milling of the sugar to achieve this fine particle size presents a potential ignition source. So, confectioners’/powdered sugar, which has a particle size in the order of 60 microns, can be a particular hazard. The finer the sugar, the greater the risk. 'Any substance that burns at all can be made to burn bigger and faster by increasing its surface area, thus increasing its access to oxygen,' PopSci reported. Mix together 1 tsp of baking soda and 4 tsp of powdered sugar. Sugar fines from the handling of crystalline sugar can trigger an explosion. The GIF was uploaded by an anonymous poster back in December, 2015, but has recently climbed the ranks of Reddit, where user redsox221 uploaded the clip. Then suddenly, a fire ball roars dangerously close to the birthday boy's face. As he blows, a cloud of confectioner's sugar rises up, making contact with the candle flames. The GIF above depicts a person blowing out the candles on a cake.

Powdered sugar fire