Abstract: To understand China’s oil shale dust explosion parameters， by using standard apparatus， a set of experiments has been conducted on the ignition sensitivity and the explosion severity of shale dusts from four main mining areas， and the results are analyzed by comparing with coal dust. The results show that the ignition temperature of the shale dust layer is between 240~280℃， the dust cloud ignition temperature is between 440~560℃， both are approximate to that of bituminous coal. The minimum ignition of dust cloud has a wide distribution from 0.2 to 16J， which has a negative relationship with the volatile content of the shale sample. The explosion limit of oil shale is between 200~225g/m³， higher than that of bituminous coal. From 300 to 2500g/m³ the explosion severity firstly increases with the dust concentration and goes down afterward， the maximum value is about 2/3 of the bituminous. The results of the study are helpful for understanding shale dust explosion risk and selecting process explosion-proof methods.

Key words: dust explosion, explosive characteristic parameter, ignition sensitivity, explosion severity, explosion risk