Background
During a recent Dust Hazard Analysis (DHA) walkthrough, our consultants were on the scene of a major cheese and dairy producer whose sites here in the United States consist of liquid milk products processing, spray drying of powdered milk products, and production of cheese products. The plant in question has been in operation for almost 15 years without a major explosion. However major fires have occurred at this facility in both the spray drying area and the lactose milling systems. Each of these fires have resulted in major interruption to production, firefighter emergency response, and evacuation of staff during the incident. No one was hurt in either of the two major fires. Site management is embarking on the first steps of their combustible dust journey in completing this dust hazard analysis.
Starting Point
During the walk through, our consultants happened upon a room in which lactose and whey products are stored in large silos with equipment located on multiple grated levels. It is very normal for an operation like this to have some amount of dust buildup due to fugitive dust escape throughout the building from places such as access doors, pipe connections, and process openings. However, in this case there were several areas that exhibited very thick dust accumulations, especially on the lowest levels. It was noted that the largest layers
of dust accumulation were present directly below process equipment which were fitted with flexible duct connections.
