DSS061: Housekeeping Options for Combustible Dust Cleanup with Scott Boersma

In this episode of the DustSafetyScience Podcast, we are interviewing Scott Boersma, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Sales Officer at Delfin Industrial Corporation, about housekeeping options for combustible dust cleanup.

Scott appeared on Episode #35, when he talked about the design and certification of explosion-proof vacuum systems. He is also scheduled to present on the topic of combustible dust housekeeping options at the 2020 Digital Dust Safety Conference. In this episode, Scott answers the following questions:

What are the OSHA and NFPA compliance requirements for housekeeping in facilities handling combustible dust?
What are the different options in terms of housekeeping and cleaning of combustible dust?
How can you select the right vacuum system?
What is the difference between a portable system and a central vacuum system?
What do companies tend to overlook when choosing a vacuum system?

What are the OSHA and NFPA Compliance Requirements for Housekeeping in Facilities Handling Combustible Dust?

NFPA 652 is the new standard on the fundamentals of combustible dust, and its final revisions are being completed now. Although standards like NFPA 61, 484, 654, 655, and 664 address some aspects of combustible dust safety in various industries, 652 addresses housekeeping and bridges the gap between conflicting standards.

“If you’re in a rated environment, or if you’re not in a rated environment but handling combustible dust, these standards still apply to you,” Scott explained. “I don’t know if everybody understands that. If you’re not sure about whether you’re handling a combustible dust, these standards still apply to you.”

He recommended that facility managers ask themselves the following questions, one after the other:

Do I have a combustible dust?
What is my hazard analysis?
What’s my housekeeping practice?
What’s my plan to remove this dust?

NFPA 652 outlines how to remove combustible dust and goes into detail about housekeeping procedures. Vacuum cleaning is listed as a primary housekeeping method, but the following measures are also approved:

Sweeping
Shovelling
Scooping
Water washdowns
Pneumatic conveyance
Air compressor blowdowns

“For Delfin, NFPA 652 has really given us an opportunity to understand how to design future vacuum systems that will be compliant and create a safe environment when they’re being used,” Scott said. “So, for housekeeping, that’s where we go.”

What are the Different Options in Terms of Housekeeping and Cleaning Combustible Dust?

During his DDSC presentation, Scott will be talking about the differences between portable and central vacuum systems and large systems versus small ones. He will also discuss why vacuum systems top the list of housekeeping resources.

“The primary focus for housekeeping is to make sure that we don’t create a cloud,” he explained. “Well, we know that some methods like sweeping and blowguns are a very inefficient way to clean or move dust from one place to another. Dust can settle in bad areas. It can also reach arcing sources. So for these reasons, we want to collect and contain, with the vacuum system being the primary sweeping, shovelling, scooping resource.”

A review of the combustible dust incident database confirms that blowdowns frequently initiate explosions that injure workers. On October 11, 2017, three workers were injured at the top of a silo in Detroit, Maine. They were scooping up sulfur dust with shovels when a flash fire ignited on the gangway.

“NFPA 652 says specifically the use of scoops, brooms, brushes, sweeping, and shovelling shall be permitted,” Scott acknowledged. “But I think people sometimes misunderstand and say, ‘Hey, it’s permitted. We can just go scoop.’ And that’s not what it’s saying. What it is saying is that this is a primary method.”

He explained that facility managers should use vacuum systems to collect and safely contain dust and get the levels down as much as possible. Only in certain circumstances should they use other, higher-risk methods.

“That’s all part of the dust hazard analysis. You understand where your ignition sources are, what the combustibility of the dust is, and how you can handle it. So if you’re not doing the DHA and documenting that in the first place, then you probably shouldn’t get to the housekeeping procedures yet because you don’t know how to handle it.”

How to Select the Right Vacuum System

Scott confirmed that his DDSC presentation will cover the material construction of central and portable vacuum systems. Choosing the right system for a given application will depend on the answers to questions like the following:

What components are you looking for?
What kind of certifications are you looking for?
What’s acceptable? What’s not acceptable?
How are they certified?
Who’s at risk?
Who is the one that really makes the decision?
Who’s the authority having jurisdiction?

Touching on the last question, Scott said, “It’s not just an OSHA rep, but maybe a plant safety manager, local fire marshal, building inspector, or an insurance agent. We need to understand who’s really looking at this and what kind of criteria we need to follow. And again, doing the right analysis upfront in order to make sure we’re buying the right type of equipment and the right procedures are in place.”

What is the Difference Between a Portable System and a Central Vacuum System?

Scott explained that the basic answer to this question is that one system is portable while the other is fixed in place, but added that technological advances blurred the boundaries between them. There are portable central systems and portable systems where you can use short sections of piping.

“I think we’re doing fewer big systems and more of the portable systems in plants today,” he said. “And there are a lot of reasons behind that: everything from cost structures to design criteria to flexibility to manageability maintenance. Those are all reasons that I think customers have shifted a lot more into the industrial portable sector out of the bigger, more fixed design systems in there. But there are still a lot of reasons to do both. The application really dictates which approach you take.”

What Do Companies Tend to Overlook When Choosing a Vacuum System?

According to Scott, the cost is one of the biggest things that customers tend to focus on. What they’re not always thinking about is system certification. Many older fixed systems that have been running for 20 to 30 years were designed to comply with old standards and no longer meet modern requirements.

The other major consideration is flexibility. “Every time you put in a central vacuum system and then you make one addition, you want to add one line or add two lines,” he said. “What does that do to the overall system performance? In the past, the attitude was, ‘It doesn’t work unless you close two of the ports.’ Now, if it’s not working, it means that [the] product could be settling in the pipes and causing a dust hazard for your facility.”

Conclusion

Scott made many relevant points during the interview, but one needs to be emphasized. If you don’t know whether you’re handling combustible dust or you don’t know if NFPA 652 applies to you, it applies until a DHA proves otherwise. When it comes to dust hazards, assumptions are too dangerous to make.

If you would like to discuss further, leave your thoughts in the comments section below. You can also reach Scott Boersma directly:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottboersma1/
Website: https://delfinindustrial.com/

If you have questions about the contents of this or any other podcast episode, you can go to our ‘Questions from the Community’ page and submit a text message or video recording. We will then bring someone on to answer these questions in a future episode.