(60d) A NEW Testing Facility to Characterize Esd Hazards

Baghouse filters are common dust collection systems for pneumatic transport processes involving finely divided powder materials. However, safe use of these systems requires appropriate control of electrostatic charge and discharge phenomena. Numerous parameters may contribute to accidental inflammation due to uncontrolled ESDs. This is the reason why the experimental approach keeps the best way to investigate these complex hazards.

The paper will describe a full-scale facility designed and built at INERIS, as part of the BESP research project, to study the effect of all relevant parameters mentioned above.

Moreover, instrumentation of the facility to measure appropriate electrostatic fields, and charge and discharge patterns within the filter cabinet according to the type of filtering bags mounted will be presented. Preliminary results obtained in experiments on two types of bags representative of industrial use will be discussed.

The on-going testing program as well as future research opportunities offered by the new facility will also be highlighted.