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Article: Dust explosion strategies. (Environmental).
- Article from:
- Plant Engineering
- Article date:
- April 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. (US). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Dust explosions are one of the most challenging, complex, dangerous, least understood hazards facing industry today. On one level it is not hard to understand what a dust explosion is: A loud noise, accompanied by a pressure wave and a lot of heat. But what is required for dust to constitute an explosion hazard?
Dust is a solid material--organic or unoxidized metal--not larger than 500 microns in cross section. Smaller particles make more explosive dust, and less noble metals are more explosive than more noble ones. In the simplest possible terms: oxygen + fuel = oxides + heat.
Dust must be agitated so that each particle is surrounded by an oxidant ...