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xx Dust Explosions in the Process Industries

an opportunity to pick up from where I had to stop reviewing the most recent literature
for inclusion in the original book manuscript. The summer school was repeated both in
1993and 1994,which encouragedme to update the review accordingly.It gradually came
clear to me that the review would only need to be modified slightly to form a useful new
Chapter 8 of my book. The publisher agreed to this idea and decided that such a chap-
ter, covering material published after 1990,be included in the second addition of the book
to appear in 1996/1997.I therefore continued to incorporate new material right up to the
submission of the final manuscript.
After having worked for more than 30 years at CMR (CMI up to 1992), performing
contract research and consultancy work for industry, I started, from 1996, a new chal-
lenging career as a full-time professor in process safety technology at the University of
Bergen. It is my hope that my students will find the present book, with the new Chapter
8, a helpful guide into one of the important facets of process safety.

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION

The ambitious objective of this book is to provide an overview of the present state of
the art. However, the amount of published information on dust explosions worldwide is
vast, and a substantial amount of additional work was never printed in retrievable liter-
ature.While I feel that I may have been able to cover some of the EnglisWAmericanand
German open literature fairly well, most of the valuable research published in other lan-
guages had to be left out simply because of the language barrier.
Although I have tried to give a reasonably balanced account,the book also reflects my
personal research background.To me the important role of powder mechanics in under-
standing dust explosions is evident. I have, therefore, included a separate chapter on the
mechanics of dust particles and dust deposits.The book also reflects that most of my dust
explosion research has been related to ignition, venting, and testing.
The confrontation with the early research carried out by the pioneers in the United
Kingdom, Germany, United States, and other countries creates deep humility and admi-
ration for the outstanding work performed by these people. Lack of sophisticateddiag-
nostics did not prevent them from penetrating the logical structuresof the problems and
to draw long-lasting conclusions from their observations. It is a pity that much of this
work seems to be forgotten in more recent research. Too often humankind “reinventsthe
wheel.” This also applies to dust explosion research.
I am indebted to professor emeritus H. E. Rose for bringing the existence of the phe-
nomenon of dust explosions to my attention for the first time and for giving me the
opportunity to become acquainted with the subject, during my two years of post-graduate
studies at King’s College, London, 1966-1968.
I am also indebted to Mr. Alv Astad and Mr. Helge Aas for their encouragementand
active participation when dust explosion research, sponsoredby Norwegian industry,was
initiated at Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen, Norway, about 1970.
The Royal Norwegian Council for Scientificand Industrial Research (NTNF) has given
valuable financialsupportto CMI’sdust (and gas) explosionresearch from 1972until today,
and also allocated a generous special grant for the writing of their book. An additional
valuable grant for the work with the book was given by the SwedishFire ResearchBoard
(Brandforsk).