September 21st, 2023
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
On August 7th, an explosion injured several people at a grain silo at the port of Derince in northwest Turkey. The explosion happened in the afternoon, close to the Turkish Grain Board silo. Workers and rescuers quickly extracted people from the explosion site, but not before several people were injured.
An initial analysis indicated the blast occurred from wheat dust compression during the transportation of wheat from the ship to the silo. The ignition source has not been identified. The Local officials and police will continue to investigate the cause of the incident and to look into the circumstances surrounding the explosion. Thirteen silos and outbuildings suffered damage as a result of the incident and will require inspection, repair and/or replacement. No ships sustained damage due to the incident.
Our September 2012 article on Explosion Protection Systems for Combustible Dusts states that, “processing, handling and storing of combustible dusts within enclosed equipment (i.e., mixers, blenders, mills, separators, cutting tools, holding bins, dust collectors, cyclones, etc.) can easily create an explosive atmosphere that could be ignited by tramp metal, static electricity, burning/hot dust particles or some other means. The resulting explosion could lead to a large property loss and subsequent interruption to production that could be devastating to your business. This does not take into account the possibility of subsequent dust explosions if there is poor housekeeping and fugitive dust accumulations in the building housing the subject equipment, which could be catastrophic.”
As defined in NFPA 652, Standard on the Fundamentals of Combustible Dust, a Dust Hazard Analysis (DHA) is a systematic review to both identify and evaluate the potential fire, flash fire, or explosion hazards associated with the presence of one or more combustible particulate solids in a process or facility.
For facilities/processes that handle dust, the owner/operator of that process is responsible to determine if the dust handled poses a combustible dust fire or explosion hazard. NFPA 652 requires that all combustible dust users complete a DHA for existing systems.
Risk Logic’s engineers have the specialized knowledge of combustible dust hazards needed to analyze the hazards in your facility. Our engineers will visit your facility to evaluate the receiving, storage, use, processing and disposal of all combustible dusts.
If you would like further information regarding explosion protection systems for combustible dusts, or are interested in having an experienced property loss prevention engineer inspect your facility, please contact Risk Logic Inc.