Abstract: During the operation of the pulverizing system in power plants, the temperature is relatively high, and coal dust deposited on the surface of equipment is prone to thermal runaway. Under the effect of aerodynamic lifting, this can even trigger explosion accidents. To reveal the process of coal dust cloud explosion induced by airflow lifting, this study established an experimental setup for coal dust explosion. The research focused on the spontaneous combustion process and characteristic parameters of coal dust, the critical conditions for coal dust particle lifting and explosion, and the characteristics and mechanisms of explosion behavior. The results show that heat conduction and exothermic oxidation control the migration of high-temperature points in the coal dust layer. Before thermal runaway, the temperature rise is primarily governed by heat conduction from the hot surface. After the onset of thermal runaway, exothermic oxidation reactions dominate. The high-temperature point undergoes a process of moving upward from the hot surface and then downward again. With increasing accumulation thickness, the maximum temperature, and the durations of the combustion spread and decay phases increase. For thicknesses of 8 mm and 10 mm, the corresponding maximum temperatures were 538°C and 510°C, and the combustion spread durations were 810 s and 1520 s, respectively. The coal dust explosion process under lifting can be divided into four stages: particle dispersion, jet propagation, explosion spread, and extinction. A key feature of the jet propagation stage is the formation of discrete flames, which ignite combustible gases to create continuous flames. The central temperature range of the coal dust layer that can induce explosions after lifting is 280°C to 420°C. When the central temperature is lower, the heat of the coal dust particles is insufficient to ignite volatile gases and form discrete flames. When the central temperature is too high, the number of unburned particles decreases, preventing the supply of sufficient active material. As a result, with increasing central temperature, the flame propagation speed first increases and then decreases, with a maximum flame speed of 4.76 m/s during the explosion. After the explosion, the concentration of CO gas increases sharply, the particle size of the solid residues decreases, and the surface roughness is reduced. The higher the degree of spontaneous combustion in the coal dust, the more complete the combustion after dispersion. The explosion of deposited coal dust is caused by the combined effects of heterogeneous combustion of fixed carbon and homogeneous combustion of volatile gases such as CO and H?. Ignited particles ignite surrounding CO and H? combustible gases, leading to further homogeneous combustion, which triggers the pyrolysis, volatilization, and combustion of unburned coal dust cloud particles. This coupling effect also results in incomplete combustion, secondary ignitions, and multiple ignition sources. This study provides a theoretical basis for the prevention and control of spontaneous combustion-induced explosion hazards in industrial pulverizing systems.