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Combustible Dust: What You Should Know About NFPA 652

NFPA 652: Standard on the Fundamentals of Combustible Dust, 2016 Edition became effective on September 7, 2015. NFPA 652 is intended to provide the minimum requirements for managing fire, flash fire, and explosion hazards associated with combustible dusts. After establishing the minimum requirements for combustible dust in general, the standard then refers to other NFPA standards that may be required based on the specific dust you're handling in your plant. Read more

Conduct an Effective Incident Investigation

Information that can reveal the root cause of an incident resides in many places ― within the plant or process unit, and in control rooms, offices and witnesses' minds. Here's how to find the data and conduct effective witness interviews. Read more

Conducting Process Hazard Analyses for Dust Handling Operations

Use this checklist-based technique of process hazard analysis (PHA) to identify and assess potential dust hazards and to evaluate safeguards that can mitigate risks. Read more

Defining Dust Hazard Areas Can Help Streamline PHA's

As part of the 2013 update, NFPA 654 provides clarification on how to determine if a flash fire or explosion hazard exists. As part of the facility and systems design section, it is now required that a hazard assessment be conducted to determine if dust flash fire and dust explosion hazards exist (NFPA 654 Section 6.1). The real benefit to conducting these hazard assessments is in defining combustible dust hazard areas – both inside and external to process equipment. This paper presents a multi-step approach to conducting these hazard assessments, simplifying the process and defining the areas to evaluate during the process hazard analysis (PHA) to assure that valuable resources are spent appropriately. Read more

Designing Emergency Relief Systems for Runaway Reactions

Do you suffer from the ERS design ostrich syndrome? Most companies are well-equipped to perform emergency relief system (ERS) design for single-phase flow and non-reactive systems. Existing standards and recommended engineering practices developed by organizations such as the ASME, NFPA, API, and AIChE's CCPS enable a competent engineer with proper training to perform such calculations with a high degree of confidence and accuracy. Relative systems, however, are more complex, and may be susceptible to fire-induced and process-induced runaway reactions. This paper provides guidance that applies to reactive systems subject to process- and fire-induced runaway reactions, tanks that store reactive materials, and two-phase flow of reactive materials. Read more

Determination of Boiling Temperatures Using A Differential Scanning Calorimeter

The mass utilization of volatile combustible organic solvents as a carrier for fine chemicals or a medium for reactions in the chemical industries necessitates the direct measurement of solvents’ boiling range in the mixture to enhance their functionality and ensure the safety of operation. Read more