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Chris Cloney TABLE 1. COMPARISON OF AVERAGE YEARLY INCIDENTS IN THE CSB DATA AND CDID
DustEx Research Ltd. Source Date range Total years Average explo­Average inju­ Average fatali­
sions per year ries per year ties per year

F
ires and explosions in facilities U.S. CSB 1980-2005 26 11 28 5
that handle combustible dust U S. CSB 2001-2005 5 19 43 a
remain an ongoing focus of CDID 2016 1 31 22 3
process safety efforts across CDID 2017 28 39 6
many areas of the chemical process CDID 2018“ 1 24 ID 1
4
industries (CPI). But how many dust- CDID 2016-2018 3 28 24

related safety incidents occur each ‘2018 totals are projected from the mid-year incident report
year? This question is a major driver
behind the formation of the Combus­and industry repositories. It is impor­new technology and products were
tible Dust Incident Database (CDID; tant to note that articles may containalso featured. In the first six months
Halifax, N.S., Canada; www.dust- incomplete or, in some cases, incor­of 2018, 75 fires, 14 explosions, nine
safetyscience.com). Created in 2016,rect information. Furthermore, dust injuries and one fatality were reported
the CDID features a twice-yearly re­ fires and explosions often go unre­ in North America. One of these ex­
port on fires and explosions having to ported, and the totals reflected here plosions occurred in Canada and
do with combustible dusts. The CDIDmay vastly underestimate the total 13 within the U.S. Internationally, 14
is an online portal with the purpose magnitude of the problem. This is es­fires, 12 explosions, 31 injuries, and
of reporting, tracking and generatingpecially true internationally, where the eight fatalities were recorded.
lessons learned from fire and explo­ news coverage is sometimes limited. The reports can be downloaded
sion incidents around the world. The by navigating to the following link:
database is meant as a tool for tech­Incident reporting www.dustsafetyscience.com/solids-
nical decision makers to anticipate The first incident report [7] was re­ processing-2018.
upcoming difficulties and process leased in 2016 and covered com­
safety trends in their industries, and bustible dust explosions within NorthComparison to historical data
to give the powder-handing commu­ America. In 2016, 31 explosions The most comprehensive analysis
nity a platform to measure and man­were reported in the U.S. and two of combustible dust incidents in the
age combustible dust hazards. were reported in Canada. These in­ U.S. is the Combustible Dust Haz­
The information collected and cidents caused a reported total of 22ard Study [4], published by the U.S.
tabulated on combustible-dust inci­ injuries and three fatalities in 2016. Chemical Safety Board (CSB; www.
dents in the CDID is now helping to In 2017 mid-year and year-end in­ csb.gov). In this report, the CSB
determine trends and tendencies in cident reports were released [2]. Thereviewed combustible-dust flash
the materials, industries and equip­ year-end report covered both com­ fires and explosions over a 26-year
ment involved with these hazards. bustible dust fires and explosions period between 1980 and 2005.
This article outlines the findings around the world. In North America, Comparing the average number of
from the incident reporting com­ 132 fires, 32 explosions, 61 injuries, explosions, injuries and fatalities to
pleted to date. Comparisons are and six fatalities were recorded. Fourthose from the CDID illustrates how
made between the CDID informationof the explosions were reported in the loss from these incidents may be
and historical combustible-dust ex­ Canada, while the other 28 were in evolving over time (Table 1).
plosion data within the U.S. Also, anthe U.S. Internationally, 37 fires, 36 The CSB report shows an increas­
overview of the personal and finan­ explosions, 102 injuries and seven ing trend in the number of com­
cial loss resulting from these types offatalities were recorded. bustible-dust incidents, injuries and
incidents is provided. The 2018 mid-year incident report fatalities, with the numbers almost
The incident research discussed (3) was released in August 2018. In doubling during the 20-year period
here is based on publicly available in­addition to global fire and explosion from 1980 to 2001. The CSB cau­
formation, including news stories andincidents, the Occupational Safety tions in their report that this increase
other resources accessible by Inter­ and Health Administration (OSHA; may be due to limitations in previous
net search engines, as well as socialWashington, D.C.; www.osha.gov) reporting, including that the earlier
media sharing, government sources citations, upcoming events, and incidents were under-reported.
57
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM NOVEMBER 2018
 The more recent CDID data show
a steady continuation in the number
of recorded dust-related explosions
per year. The total increased by an­
other 50% in the 10 years since the
CSB report was published. However,
the incident reports also suggest that
the overall number of injuries and fa­
talities may be flattening or decreas­
ing compared to the number of inci­
dents. This tentatively suggests that
an emphasis on combustible dust
awareness, prevention and protec­
tion practices over the last decade
may be reducing the average severity
of any given explosion. It is again im­
portant to note that under-reporting
in previous data may influence this
conclusion. Furthermore, although
the severity may be decreasing, nei­
ther dataset shows any single year
with zero fatalities due to dust explo­
sions in the U.S. since 1983.
Materials and industries
From the 2018 CDID incident report­
ing, wood processing, food process­
ing and agricultural activities account
for almost 60% of the dust-related
fire and explosion incidents. Auto­
motive manufacturing, metal work­
ing, power generation and mining
contributed an additional 17%. The
remaining 24% of incidents occurred
in other industries, including pulp
and paper, education, coatings, oil
and gas, textiles and recycling.
Very frequently, materials involved
in wood-product incidents were
TABLE 2. EQUIPMENT CITED IN COMBUSTIBLE DUST INCIDENTS
Equipment Fires
Dust collectors 25
Storage silos
Elevators/conveyors 7 5
Other storage 12
Other equipment 21
No details mentioned 16
specified as sawdust or wood dust,
and materials involved in food pro­
cessing or agriculture were specified
as grain dust. In cases were specific
materials were named, pine chips,
cellulose, corn, pecan, cocoa, flour,
cereal, barley and spices were im­
plicated in dust incidents. Although
not broken out in the data, coal dust
accounted for almost 7% of the total
incidents. In cases involving metal
dusts, aluminum, titanium, magne­
sium and iron were cited most often.
Equipment and causes
Dust collectors tend to have the
highest number of total incidents of
all equipment involved in powder
processing. However, the 2018 in­
cident data suggest that these were
more often fires than explosions. It is
often difficult to distinguish between
storage silos and elevators — these
two terms are often used synony­
mously in much of the news report­
ing. Overall, storage silos, elevators
and conveyors made up half of the
explosion incidents, while account­
ing for a smaller proportion of the
overall fires (Table 2). Other equip­
ment includes mills, shakers, grind-
Explosions Total
5 23
9 17
12
2 14
3 24
4 20
ers, saws, dryers and cyclones.
Often, very little information is
available that points to the initiating
cause of combustible dust fire and
explosion incidents. In specific cases
highlighted in the reports, hot work,
including welding and cutting metal,
are listed as the initiating cause.
Sometimes machine sparking and
static electricity are indicated in news
reports, although it is rare to have this
substantiated by a formal technical
review. Further development of the
CDID will focus on working with local
fire departments and government or­
ganizations to better communicate
these causes when an official investi­
gation has been performed.
Loss overview
It is instructive to organize the com­
bustible-dust incident data in terms of
different types of loss. This compari­
son provides some information about
how fires and explosions impact injury
totals, fatalities and facility damages
individually, and allows trends from
different materials involved in pro­
cessing operations to be explored.
Global data from the first half of
2018 indicated that 89% of the fatali-

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 TABLE 3. DUST-RELATED INCIDENTS INVOLVING MORE THAT $1 MILLION IN DAMAGES unavailable. This provides motivation
Location Industry activity Material Damages for future efforts into improved proce­
Springfield, N.H. Planar mill Wood dust Fire S5-10 million dures for collecting this information.
Lawtey, Fla. Sawmill Pine dust Fire S1 million Information on the losses involving
Chesapeake,Va. Biomass Wood pellets Fire $1 million injuries, fatalities, and facility dam­
Rogers, Tex. Wood finishing Wood dust Explosion S1 million ages from dust-related incidents
Wood products Sawdust
Cottage Grove, Ore- Fire S10 million reinforces the need for countermea­
Butler, Tenn. Sawmill Wood shavings Fire $1 million sures for both explosions and fires.
Muskegon. Mich. Die casting Metal lurgic dust Fire S15 million The CDID is actively collecting
Brookers.Alla Grain processing Grain dust Fire S8-10 million
more information recording incidents
Flkview, 8.C. Coal mine Coal dust Explosion S5-10 million
San Juan, N M Power generationCoal dust Explosion S15—20 million
as they occur. The ongoing analysis
Atlus, Okla. Cottonseed plant Cottonseed Fire S20 million
and richer trove of data will allow for
more detailed explorations of fire and
ties from dust incidents occurred duein losses. A summary of the high- explosion incidents in industries out­
to explosions. With regard to injuries,damage incidents is shown in Table side of wood and food processing. ■
70% occurred from explosions, while3. Six of these incidents involved Edited by Scott Jenkins
30% were the result of fires. The total wood dust, sawdust, wood pellets
breakdown of injuries and fatalities and wood shavings. Five of these Acknowledgements
from fires and explosions is as fol­ were fires and one was an explosion.The author would like to acknowledge that support for
lows: Explosions caused 28 injuries This again demonstrates that both the CDID and incident reporting comes from member
and eight fatalities, while fires caused fire and explosion hazards need to companies and report sponsors. A list of the 2018 re­
port sponsors is provided here:
12 Injuries and one fatality. be addressed in industries handling ANPAK Camfil
This suggests that explosions tendcombustible dust. AT Industrial Products ExNB
to be more severe in terms of inju­ Additional information on specific Boss Products Inc. EPM Consulting
ries and lives lost than facility fires. incidents can be found at www.dust-CV Technology Sintrol
However, the trend for facility dam­ safetyscience.com. Ref. 5 contains
Oelfin Industrial Corp. SpaceVac
ages shows the reverse. Out of the an example of incident summaries.
Fauske & Associates LLC BWF Envirotech
eleven incidents with reported losses
IEP Technologies Power & Bulk Solids
of $1 million and above, eight were Concluding remarks
from fires and three were from explo­After comparing data from the CDID,Nilfisk Bulk Inside
sions. This highlights the importanceincluding findings from the 2018 mid­Rembe Jensen Hughes
of both fire and explosion preventionyear incident report, with historical Fike Corp.
in facility safety measures. data from the CSB, the case can be
In terms of materials involved, made that combustible dust is a safety Author
the number of fires, explosions, in­ issue that deserves continued atten­ Chris Cloney (PEng.) is the direc­
juries and fatalities for the two most tion and focus. The data also suggest tor and lead researcher at DustEx
Research Ltd., (60 Bridgeview
common categories are as follows: that efforts related to dust safety on Drive. Halitax, N.S., Canada B3P
Wood products were involved in 33 the part of CPI companies, govern­ 2M4 : Phone: 902-452-3205:
fires, five explosions, 10 injuries andment agencies and other industry or­ Email: chris@dustsafetyscience.
0 fatalities, while food products wereganizations may be having a positive com), a company with a worldwide
focus on increasing awareness of
involved in 24 fires, 12 explosions, effect: while the number of reported combustible dust hazards and re­
14 injuries and eight fatalities. dust-explosion incidents is increas­ ducing personal and financial loss
Although both categories are re­ ing over the past 40-year period, thefrom fire and explosion incidents. Cloney spent five
years working as an engineering consultant and soft-
sponsible for a similar total number number of injuries and fatalities per ware developer in the defense industries focusing on
of incidents, fires appear to be more year since 2001 to 2005 may be level­ detonation, explosion, and blast research. Upon com­
prevalent in wood processing facilities ing out, or even decreasing. pleting his Ph.D. thesis in the area of modeling coal dust
and explosions tend to be more com­ Other tentative conclusions that and hybrid mixture deflagration, he moved into the
world of online education focusing on sharing and con­
mon in food processing and agricul­ can be drawn from the data involve necting the combustible dust community.
ture. In cross-referencing these datathe materials and equipment types
with the equipment data provided ear­ most likely to present a dust-safety References
lier, these differences may be due tohazard. The most frequently cited 1. Cloney. Chris "2016 Combustible Dust Incident Report
more frequent use of dust-collection materials involved in combustible (North America) - Version #2' DustEx Research Ltd.
systems in wood-dust-handling facili­dust incidents include wood products 2016. Reporl
Retrieve from www.dustsa1etyscience.com/2016-
ties and more frequent use of silos and and food products. While dust collec­2. Cloney, Chris '2017 Combustible Dust Incident Report -
conveyors for food production. tors had the overall largest number Version #1' DustEx Research Ltd. 2017. Retrieved from
As a result of the higher number of incidents in the first half of 2018, www.dustsafetysdence.com/2017-Repori
of explosions, food products have they largely involved fires. Explosions 3. Cloney, Chris '2018 Mid-Year Combustible Dust Inci­
a larger number of high-severity in­ occurred more frequently in storage dent Repod - Version #r DustEx Research Ltd. 2018.
cidents in terms of injuries and fa­ silos, elevators and conveying equip­ Retrieve from www.dustsafetysaence.com/2018-Report
talities. In terms of facility damage, ment. The data available point to 4.(CSB). US Chetrtcal Safety and Hazard Investigation Board
'Investigation Repod - Combustible Dust Hazard
industry activities involving wood some gaps in information: often the Study'. Report No 2006-H-1.2006.
products resulted in more incidents initiating cause of fires and explo­ 5. CDID incident summary for San Juan, NM. found https://
that generated $1 million or more sions involving combustible dusts is dustsafetyscience.com/coal-fire-san-juan-new-mexiccV.

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM NOVEMBER 2018 59