When most people look at a pile of dust they don’t see something that has the potential to create a powerful explosion. However, many types of dust actually do have this explosive potential, as numerous industrial accidents can show.
One way to explain how seemingly harmless dust can become explosive, and how powerful this can be is to use a comparison to car engines. Most modern cars use a four-stroke combustion cycle, which has components similar to what occurs in an industrial dust explosion.
These four strokes begin by opening the cylinder to let in oxygen and a tiny bit of gasoline. This drop of gasoline has been turned into a fine spray, letting the drops stay suspended in the air.
Next, the piston moves up and compresses this gas and oxygen mixture, and this confinement causes the force of the gas explosion to be more powerful.
Once the piston is at the top of its stroke and the gas and Oxygen mixture is as pressurized as it can be a spark plug fires into the cylinder and ignites the gasoline mist. This explosion has enough force to drive the piston back down, which causes the crankshaft to turn. In a car, these small explosions are happening thousands of times per minute.
An industrial dust explosion follows the same pattern as the internal combustion engine, but on a much slower and larger scale. The dust replaces the gasoline, but becomes mixed with oxygen when it is disturbed. This dust cloud is confined within the building, creating the pressure needed to increase the explosion’s force.
Ignition sources can come from a variety of sources, including electrical or welding sparks, heat from machinery, and in some cases even static electricity. This ignition source is the same as the spark plug in the engine, and causes the dust cloud to explode.
Instead of driving an engine however, this explosion has the power to blow a roof or side off a building, buckle cement floors, and in extreme cases completely level a plant.
Confined explosions have the potential to power a car or destroy a manufacturing plant; the difference just depends on the size of the explosion and ability to control it.
Hughes Environmental is committed to preventing these hazardous manufacturing explosions by cleaning the combustible dust. This has the same effect as removing the gasoline from a car- the explosions just can’t happen without fuel.
