(12c) Combustible Dust – a Hazard You Should Not Just Brush Off

Combustible dust has always been a hazard in industry, especially for facilities that handle, store, or manufacture powders and dusts. These hazards are often unforeseen due to the lack of understanding of this complex hazard. However, we have seen industries focus more on identifying and mitigating their combustible dust hazards from not only a safety standpoint but also for protection of assets and maintaining business continuity to remain operational and prevent loss of market share. With an increase in combustible dust-related incidents and the new issuance of combustible dust codes, we now have more data and tools to mitigate these hazards. Based on our experience with combustible dust throughout various industry sectors, this session aims to communicate the basics of combustible dust and how to manage these risks. This educational combustible dust session will cover:

• An overview of hazards and a brief overview of various types of dusts.
• A review of recent incidents along with lessons learned.
• How to identify hazards and an overview of Dust Hazard Analysis studies.
• Related codes and how they relate to specific jurisdictions.
• Industry’s increased efforts to installing sensor/controls to prevent explosions/deflagrations
• Industry’s increased efforts to installing equipment to control and arrest combustible dust pressure and fire events.
• Dust sampling and testing methodologies and an overview of Dust Management Systems in NFPA 652.

Combustible dust hazards are here to stay. If we do not do our due diligence related to risk analysis and mitigation implementation, we put ourselves at significant risk of a dust-related incident. The best way to start managing these risks is to educate our personnel on recognizing these risks to ensure that we can then implement appropriate mitigation strategies.