Streamlining Your Dust Hazard Analysis

One of the most important responsibility of owners and operators handling combustible dusts is the conduct of a dust hazard analysis. The DHA is conducted to identify and evaluate fire, deflagration, and explosion hazards in handling combustible dusts. The recent CCPS book, Guidelines for Combustible Dust Hazard Analysis, presents two approaches to completing DHAs: traditional and risk-based. In a risk-based approach, consequences and likelihood are assessed to determine the risk of an identified hazard scenario. Ignition source control is a major part of defining the likelihood of an event. In a risk-based DHA, potential ignition sources are considered, credible ones are evaluated, with the goal of understanding the mechanism by which they are generated, their incendivity in the process equipment, and the safeguards, or barriers, protecting against them. With most of the time in a DHA spent understanding and evaluating potential ignition sources, preparing the necessary input information ahead of time can streamline the time spent. This presentation will provide the type of information, including dust characteristics, equipment, operating, and maintenance, that is often used in a thorough evaluation of ignition sources. Gathering this information for ready access during the DHA, will streamline the study and make more efficient use of the team time.