Dust Explosion Prevention and Mitigation, Status and Developments in Basic Knowledge and in Practical Application

Table 1

Schematic overview of means of preventing and mitigating dust explosions.

Explosion prevention		Explosion mitigation
Preventing explosive dust clouds	Preventing ignition sources
Inerting of dust clouds by N2, CO2 and rare gases	Smouldering combustion in dust, dust fires	Explosion-pressure resistant construction
Intrinsic inerting of dust cloud by combustion gases	Other types of open flames (e.g., hot work)	Explosion isolation (sectioning)
Inerting of dust cloud by adding inert dust	Hot surfaces (electrically or mechanically heated)	Explosion venting
Keeping dust conc. outside explosive range	Heat from mechanical impact (metal sparks and hot-spots)	Automatic explosion suppression
Inherently safer process design	Electric sparks and arcs and electrostatic discharges	Partial inerting of dust cloud by inert gas
		Good housekeeping (dust removal/cleaning)