Combustible Dust Hazards: Assessment, Prevention and Protection

Dust explosions occur in a wide range of industrial sectors and often lead to injury, lost production and sometime fatalities. Powders form explosible dust clouds when the particle size is small, moisture content is low, and the concentration of dust in the atmosphere falls between certain critical limits. Such conditions are routinely found inside the material handling/processing equipment, which is where explosions frequently begin - but most damage and injury result when the explosion forces break free of the process plant. 

Measures can be taken to reduce the likelihood of dust explosion occurring in your process plant and a variety of safeguarding measures are available to control explosion forces if a dust explosion does occur. But in all cases, it is critical to be able to answer the question, ‘why is my plant safe’, which introduces the concept of ‘Basis of Safety’ – i.e. the identification of a clear reason why plant can safely operate without risk to people, equipment and the business. A central backbone to the course is the work of The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), which has recognized the common threads through all its existing dust-hazard-related standards and sought to consolidate the best general practices for all combustible solids, irrespective of industry and powder/dust type, in the new NFPA 652: Standard on the Fundamentals of Combustible Dust.  

This intensive, one-day course will demonstrate the practical techniques available for both preventing dust explosions and protecting people and facilities from their effects based on the requirements of NFPA 652. It employs a systematic approach to dust explosion hazard assessment directed towards obtaining a ‘Basis of Safety’ for a process.