Chemical Design | Get Up-to-Date on Explosion Venting Requirements | Chemical Processing

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In Chemical Design, written by our friends at Farr, a good article for those in the chemical processing and other industries, on current explosion venting requirements:

Chemical Design | Get Up-to-Date on Explosion Venting Requirements | Chemical Processing

Operations in many chemical plants can pose the risk of dust explosions. One common potential source of such explosions is a dust collection system. It’s therefore timely to examine the latest complete revision of the “National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 68 Standard on Explosion Protection by Deflagration Venting” to see what’s changed and how this impacts future dust-collection decisions. The standard, which can be purchased online via the NFPA web site ( http://www.nfpa.org ), applies to all closed-vessel dry-collection systems such as cartridge-style dust collectors. So, here, we’ll share our understanding of five key implications of NFPA 68 as they relate to cartridge dust-collection systems.

1. NFPA 68 has changed from a “guideline” to a “standard.” It provides mandatory, and much more stringent, requirements for collection applications involving explosive dusts. This echoes actions by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which recently launched a National Emphasis Program focusing on the safe handling of combustible dusts ( http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=DIRECTIVES&p_id=3830 ). OSHA defines combustible dusts as “organic or metal dusts that are finely ground into very small particles, fibers, chips, and/or flakes…. Some of the industries in which combustible dusts are particularly prevalent include agriculture, chemical, textile, forest and the furniture industry.”

Simply stated, it’s the NFPA’s role to set the standard and OSHA’s and local authorities’ role to enforce it.

Read more at the above link.

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