IChemE - Small-Scale Industrial Dust Explosions

In a recent IChemE Learned Society project focused on small-scale industrial explosions, it became clear that more education and training is needed on dust explosions. This webinar is an introduction to this broad and important subject area.

Most organic materials, many metals and some inorganic chemicals are combustible when they are in the form of a fine dry powder. Many of these have low ignition energies and in some cases, notably active pharmaceutical ingredients, have ignition energies comparable to flammable vapours. When contained, dust explosions can reach 10 bar and are as potentially lethal as vapour and gas explosions.

The risks from dust explosions are frequently over looked and when accompanied by poor housekeeping, a small-scale primary explosion can lead to a large-scale secondary explosion and total facility destruction with multiple fatalities.