Partial Inerting - A Cost Efficient weapon against Dust Explosion

Hey everybody, hope you are enjoying my blog and finding the information useful in your field of work. Today we are talking about a topic which is rather less explored and understood in many industries as of now i.e. "Partial Inerting".

Let's start first with understanding Inerting. Inerting is defined as the replacement of "oxidant" in a system by a non-reactive, non-flammable gas, to make the atmosphere within the system unable to propagate flame. Inerting may be achieved by using a non-flammable gas, which will neither react with the fuel nor with the oxidant. There are many gases used for inerting such as Nitrogen, Carbon Dioxide, Flue Gases, Noble Gases (Argon, Helium), etc.

P.S: Some material may react with these inert gases under some conditions. Hence, correct selection of gases is critical.

Now let's discuss the concept of PARTIAL INERTING to prevent dust fire and explosion. Partial Inerting means dilution of oxidising atmosphere with an inert gas but not up to the extent of LOC i.e. oxidant concentration lies between LOC and atmospheric concentrations. In other words, for partial inerting, the oxidising atmosphere (most often air) in which the explosible dust is dispersed is mixed with a fraction of inert gas (e.g. nitrogen) considerably smaller than that required for complete inerting (i.e. below LOC). 

Selection of Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers (FIBC) and their relevance

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The next concept which I have seen people struggling with is the selection of FIBC.

FIBCs are flexible, rectilinear containers constructed of woven plastic with a suitable liner. The typical FIBC is made of woven polypropylene with a polyolefin liner. Various designs exist for the basic container and grounding arrangements (if any), and larger capacities are also available.

There are four types of FIBCs which are available, i.e. Type A, Type B, Type C and Type D. Each of these have different specifications and different utilization & relevance.