Determination of explosion characteristics, fire behavior and thermal degradation products of aspartame

Abstract Aspartame is a commonly known artificial sweetener used mainly as a sucrose substitute due to high degree of sweetness and very low caloric index. Aspartame is being known and produced for over 50 years and yet so little is known about its flammability and hazardous compounds generated in case of a fire event. As a part of this work, behavior under fire conditions of aspartame was tested and compounds generated during burning process were analyzed. Based on the results from 20-L spherical explosion chamber aspartame was classified as a ST2 class dust with minimum ignition energy under 30 mJ and self-ignition temperature below 500 °C. For this purpose cone calorimeter, purser furnace, gas chromatograph, simultaneous thermal analyzer, 20-L spherical explosion vessel, modified Hartman's Tube, Godbert-Greenwald Apparatus were used.