The dicumyl peroxide (DCP) is widely used as a polymerization initiator, catalyst and vulcanizing agent in the chemical industry. A number of accidents have been caused by its thermal instability in storage or manufacturing process. Thus, its hazard characteristics have to be clearly identified. First of all, the differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) is used to measure the heat of decomposition reaction, which can contribute to understanding the reaction characteristics of DCP. The accelerating rate calorimeter (ARC) is used to measure the rates of temperature and pressure rises of decomposition reaction, and then the kinetics parameters are estimated. Furthermore, the MIKE 3 apparatus and the 20-1-Apparatus are used to measure and analyze the dust explosion characteristics of DCP at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. Finally, Semenov's thermal explosion theory is applied to investigate the critical runaway condition and the stability criterion of decomposition reaction, and to build the relationship of critical temperature, convective heat transfer coefficient, heat transfer surface area and ambient temperature. These results contribute to improving the safety in the reaction, transportation and storage processes of DCP. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Institution of Chemical Engineers. All rights reserved.