Page 51 - Dust Explosions in the Process Industries

24 Dust Explosions in the Process Industries

Table 1.6 Dust explosions in the Federal Republic of Germany: frequencies in percent of initiation
by various types of ignition sources in a total of 426 explosions and in the explosions of various cat-
egories of dusts

Others 3.5 I +0.1 I
All I 426 I 100.0 I 0 100.0 I 100.0 I 100.0 I 100.0 I 100.0
*This figure also includes “others.”

Table 1.7 Dust explosions in the Federal Republic of Germany 1965-1 985: frequencies in percent
of various types of ignition sources of explosions initiated in various plant items

Source: Jeskeand Beck, 1989.

spontaneous ignition was not very frequent. The distinction between smoldering nests
and spontaneous heating may not always be obvious.
Electrostatic discharges were the dominating ignition source in mixing plants, but as
Table 1.6 shows, electrostatic discharge ignition occurred almost solely with plastic
dusts. Presumably,mixers are quite frequentin plantsproducing and handling plastic dusts,