(47c) On-Going Developments in Addressing Combustible Dust Hazards

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) continues to play an important role in creating guidance for identifying and controlling hazards associated with combustible dusts.  Five separate standards address hazards associated with wood-related materials (NFPA 664), metals (NFPA 484), agricultural products and foodstuffs (NFPA 61), sulfur (NFPA 655), and all other combustible dusts (e.g., plastics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, NFPA 654).  This paper will address a number of developments in NFPA’s initiatives addressing combustible dust hazards.  Topics to be addressed include:

• The status of, and recent revisions to, the NFPA combustible dust standards;
• NFPA’s plans for a new combustible dust standard, NFPA 652, which will address the common issues associated with controlling combustible dust hazards, leaving the commodity-specific standards to address the issues unique to their scope;
• A new technical correlating committee, which will help ensure greater consistency between the approaches addressed in the various combustible dust standards;
• The increasing inclusion of process safety management principles in the combustible dust standards; and
• The increasing allowance provided to users of NFPA standards for the use of risk-based decision-making in the selection of combustible dust hazard control options.

Options exist for AIChE to provide technical support to a number of the above areas. 

The paper will also review a new CCPS project for providing tools for addressing combustible dust hazards.