From applications using a clean high temperature flame for welding and cutting operations, acetylene is a gas encompassing a wide range of applications. Its also a gas of presenting immense transport and storage complexities, the intricacies of which are examined here in Part 7 of our Gas Cylinders series of features.
In the beginning
In the industrial gases industry, acetylene (C2H2) was considered the wonder gas in the early 20th century. However acetylene is a highly flammable compound with a wide flammability limit when mixed in air, ranging from 2.5% to 80%. This range is wider than any other commonly found flammable gas. Also, the ignition energy for acetylene is low and the burning velocity and flame temperatures are exceedingly high, with the minimum ignition energy for acetylene in air among the lowest measured for a flammable gas.
Hence it was not surprising that the initial disastrous experience of transporting acetylene as a liquid in steel cylinders prompted other developments for its safe storage. In 1897 Claude and Hess established that the gas was very soluble in acetone, which by 1900 led Berthelot to show that such a solution was safe up to 10 bar. Finally Le Chatelier proposed storing this solution in a porous mass (now referred to as porous material) inside a gas cylinder.
In the UK the Home Office launched this dissolved acetylene industry in 1901 and soon international developments followed in France, and then in 1904 in the US as an illuminating gas in car headlights. But the career of acetylene as an illuminant was short-lived, and huge applications in which its high flame temperatures are exploited were developed. In the metal working industries acetylene was used for welding, cutting and extensions of these uses such as hard facing, flame gouging, scarfing and flame hardening to name but a few, also sprang up.
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