Five Steps to Managing Combustible Dust Hazards

Combustible dust, under certain circumstances, has the potential to cause fires and explosions, which could lead to personnel injury or death, property damage and business interruption. After a brief introduction the combustible dust and its hazards, a five step approach will be presented for managing combustible dust hazards at a facility.

These steps include: 1) Characterizing dust hazards, 2) Performing a Dust Hazard Analysis (DHA), 3) Implementing fire/explosion protection systems based on DHA recommendations for risk reduction, 4) Developing and documenting combustible dust management systems for safety and compliance purposes, and 5) Conducting self-audits to maintain the combustible dust program/systems.

Details and guidance will be provided for each of these steps including recommended combustible dust tests based on dust handling operations. Best practices for explosion protection strategies will be reviewed based on applicable standards, codes and regulations, e.g., National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). This will include documentation required for management systems such as housekeeping, training, managing process changes, inspection and maintenance. A process life cycle approach will be presented where these five steps are continuously utilized to ensure that equipment and management systems provide appropriate protection for potential fires and explosions due to combustible dust hazards.