Application of Dust Hazard Analysis (DHA) for a Cooling System in a Dayri Mixture Plant

A Dust Hazard Analysis (DHA) is required by NFPA 652, a standard that addresses combustible dust fundamentals, and applies to facilities that manufacture, process, mix, transport, repackage, generate, or handle combustible particulate solids when the materials have the potential for fire or explosion. This study involved the application of the DHA methodology in a food industry, which has a dairy mixing plant with a hygrosc cooling system. The main focus of the analysis was to carry out a systematic review of the processes and facilities in which combustible particulate solids are present, enabling the identification of risk scenarios involving the occurrence of fire and/or explosion, focusing on the potential dangers of combustible dust located internally and externally to the facilities' process equipment, and which could vary depending on the characteristics of the production process and its materials.

In addition to engineering documents and previously carried out risk analyses, the safety data sheets of the analyzed chemical products were used as reference, from which it was possible to obtain their explosive characteristics, such as: Kst, Minimum Explosion Concentration (MEC) , Minimum Ignition Energy (MIE), Minimum Autoignition Temperature (MIT), and Lower Explosivity Limit (LIE).