A Comprehensive Approach to Dust Explosion Risk Reduction

Dust explosions are a persistent industrial occurrence that continue to cause harm to people, damage to equipment and buildings, economic loss from process downtime and the subsequent interruption in business activities, and degradation of the natural environment. There are strong ethical, moral, legal and financial arguments for taking appropriate steps to prevent dust explosions from happening and to protect workers and facilities from the consequences of such events. The research program described in this proposal is aimed at helping to ensure safer operation of industrial enterprises in Canada and worldwide with respect to the storage, processing and transportation of combustible particulate materials.Research will be conducted under three themes: (i) hazard characterization, (ii) fundamental understanding, (iii) and innovative risk reduction techniques. These research themes are complementary and work together to provide a knowledge base of dust explosion hazards and risk reduction measures that will be effectively communicated to the global research and industrial practice communities. The specific fuel/air systems to be investigated are: (i) nanomaterials (cellulose nanocrystals), (ii) biomass (torrefied wood), (iii) flocculent materials (low-density polyethylene), (iv) hybrid mixtures (low-density polyethylene and hydrocarbon gases), and (v) marginally explosible dusts (iron). These systems are termed "non-traditional" in that they are not representative of the established body of knowledge that exists for spherical particles of combustible dust. There is therefore a need for intensive and innovative studies of these non-traditional hazardous fuel/air systems.The research personnel to be engaged in the proposed program include five undergraduate co-op students, four Master's students, and two PhD candidates. Although individual projects are being pursued, a team-based approach will be emphasized to create exposure to skills supplementary to the experimental, modelling and analytical technical skills to be developed throughout the various research activities. A body of highly qualified personnel will thus be trained in skills relevant to the Canadian workforce in industry, academia and government.The most important benefit to Canada of the research to be undertaken within this program will be the protection of its citizens from the life-threatening effects of industrial dust explosions. This work has the potential to have a significant impact on how research needs with respect to dust explosions are viewed, and how the prevention and mitigation of dust explosions in industry are approached.