Influence of Deposition Time and Location on the Pyrolysis Performance of Grease in Kitchen Flues

In the high-temperature cooking process of Chinese-style catering, the oil fume accumulates on the inner wall of the flue during the cooling process, forming grease stains, which can easily trigger flue fires and cause a kitchen fire. Statistics indicate flue fires are a primary cause of kitchen fires in China. The changes in the composition of grease stains are due to different freezing points, which will adhere to different parts of the flue and be repeatedly heated and cooled if not cleaned in time. This leads to changes in combustion performance, subsequently affecting the progression of flue fire propagation. This paper takes grease deposits with different deposition times and locations in the flue of commercial kitchens as the research object. The research selected a medium-sized commercial kitchen flue (kitchen chimney) in Langfang City, with deposition times of the parts of the inlet and outlet for 2 months and grease in the inlet for a deposition time of 7 days, 60 days, and more than 1 year. This paper analyzed the grease deposits at different deposition positions at the flue inlet and outlet using a thermogravimetric analyzer and a gas-mass spectrometer. It is found that the primary components of the grease at the outlet have low molecular weight, thermal decomposition starting temperature ignition temperature, and activation energy in the first stage and will catch fire first; the grease at the inlet has a high comprehensive combustion performance, and the combustion is violent with little effect from the oxygen supply. Then, the pyrolysis analysis of grease stains located at the entrance of the flue is performed at different deposition times under air and nitrogen atmosphere. The results showed that the pyrolysis process of grease stains with a more than 1 year deposition time consists of two stages. One stage is the first weightlessness stage, which has the lowest activation energy, the longest combustion process, and the greatest fire risk; the other is the pyrolysis combustion process of grease stains with a deposition time of 7 days. Its activation energy is the highest, and the fire risk is the smallest. The research results can be a reference for the setting of the fire dampers and the cleaning time for the flue.