An explosion with combustible dust is one of the most terrifying experiences that can happen on an industrial level. Products such as powdered milk, wood chips, concentrates for animals and agricultural products such as corn, barley, soybeans, among others, can cause a big problem in a productive plant since they are explosive.
In the market there are alternatives(explosion suppression) to definitively counteract the problem in the event of the possibility that explode a bucket elevator, dust collector, cyclone powder dryer and equipment that handles combustible dusts; Such is the case of explosion suppression.
What is blast suppression?
As its name indicates, “suppression” consists of preventing an explosion from being generated within the aforementioned equipment. It consists of a sensor capable of detecting the existence of a flame or a sudden rise in pressure, giving the order to a special controller in fractions of milliseconds; This in turn sends the order to a bottle or container to release a suppressive agent and this generates a cloud inside the equipment, suddenly extinguishing the fire that may occur.
How safe is it to operate?
It depends on the location of the sensor, the redundancy of the system and where you place the bottles with the suppressing agent. The system is called “active isolation” since the control action occurs before the explosion occurs, unlike the “passive” system in which the action occurs when the explosion has already occurred, for example the work done by the venteo panels of evacuating the energy resulting from the explosion. The suppressing agent can be water mist or CO2. The safety of operation depends on the response speed of the system.
Fike, a worldwide pioneer in active systems offers solutions tailored to your needs. The key to how secure it is depends on how fast the system is at detecting, controlling and acting. The speed of response is the key factor for good suppression to occur; EPACO is Fike‘s star controller to act in fractions of milliseconds. The controller uses state-of-the-art software to help you track, react and plan more effectively.
Applications of suppression
Dust collectors
The collector or bag filter is responsible for retaining the dust produced by the suction fan. It is one of the places most susceptible to explosions due to its high concentration of suspended dust.
Bucket elevators
The elevator is responsible for transporting material from a low point to a high point through a train of buckets dragged vertically by a motor. The movement causes an immediate dispersion of the dust, placing it in the focus of attention of a possible explosion.
Cyclones
Cyclones are precipitators of dust using centrifugal force, it helps to separate fines and is very susceptible to large accumulation of dust.
