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February 10, 2020

Combustible dust explosions in grain processing and handling facilities

by Rose Keefe and Chris Cloney, DustEx Research Ltd (DustSafetyScience.com)

May 28, 2019 started like any other workday at the Tiwana Oil Mills feed factory in Kharauri village, India. By 1:30am, however, one supervisor was dead and nine workers were injured when a boiler exploded.

The police reported that the explosion occurred when mechanical belts were used to transfer raw material to the boiler. The factory owner swore that this incident was the first of its kind since the factory opened in 1999.
 


While this may be true, this is not the first explosion involving grain dust to cause death and injury. On January 5th, 2019, a fireman died and another was injured in a silo explosion at a grain processing facility in Clinton, Iowa.

The year before, on May 14th, 2018, a grain silo in Port Aqaba, Jordan, exploded and killed six people (See Figure 1). Two weeks later, a grain elevator exploded in South Sioux City, Nebraska, killing one person, injuring another, and forcing over 50 people to evacuate from their homes.

The causes of these incidents remain largely unknown, but details from similar explosions suggest that combustible grain dust was ignited through hot work, overheated bearings, smouldering combustion or an array of other potential ignition sources located in the facilities. Grain dust explosions are catastrophic events that can result in fatalities, injuries, property damage, and significant revenue loss due to downtime.

Grain dust explosions- An overview
Grain dust explosions have been recorded as far back as December 1785, when one of the first documented cases occurred at a bakery warehouse in Turin, Italy. Count Morozzo investigated the explosion and found that a portion of bakery flour, which was exceptionally dry, created a dust cloud when it dropped from an upper portion of the warehouse. Heat from a mounted lamp ignited the flour, causing an explosion that propagated in multiple directions and injured two people.


Read more HERE.
 

The Global Miller
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which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.


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