Hazards Analysis, Code Compliance & Procedure Development

Services to identify process safety hazards and facilitate compliance with established standards and codes.

Combustible Dust Testing

Laboratory testing to quantify dust explosion and reactivity hazards

Flammable Gas & Vapor Testing

Laboratory testing to quantify explosion hazards for vapor and gas mixtures

Chemical Reactivity Testing

Laboratory testing to quantify reactive chemical hazards, including the possibility of material incompatibility, instability, and runaway chemical reactions

ISO Accreditation and Scope
Fauske & Associates fulfills the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 in the field of Testing
DIERS Methodology

Design emergency pressure relief systems to mitigate the consequences of unwanted chemical reactivity and account for two-phase flow using the right tools and methods

Deflagrations (Dust/Vapor/Gas)

Properly size pressure relief vents to protect your processes from dust, vapor, and gas explosions

Effluent Handling

Pressure relief sizing is just the first step and it is critical to safety handle the effluent discharge from an overpressure event

Thermal Stability

Safe storage or processing requires an understanding of the possible hazards associated with sensitivity to variations in temperature

UN-DOT

Classification of hazardous materials subject to shipping and storage regulations

Safety Data Sheets

Develop critical safety data for inclusion in SDS documents

Biological

Model transport of airborne virus aerosols to guide safe operations and ventilation upgrades

Radioactive

Model transport of contamination for source term and leak path factor analysis

Fire Analysis

Model transport of heat and smoke for fire analysis

Flammable or Toxic Gas

transport of flammable or toxic gas during a process upset

OSS consulting, adiabatic & reaction calorimetry and consulting

Onsite safety studies can help identify explosibility and chemical reaction hazards so that appropriate testing, simulations, or calculations are identified to support safe scale up

Mechanical, Piping, and Electrical

Engineering and testing to support safe plant operations and develop solutions to problems in heat transfer, fluid flow, electric power systems

Battery Safety

Testing to support safe design of batteries and electrical power backup facilities particularly to satisfy UL9540a ed.4

Hydrogen Safety

Testing and consulting on the explosion risks associated with devices and processes which use or produce hydrogen

Spent Fuel

Safety analysis for packaging, transport, and storage of spent nuclear fuel

Decommissioning, Decontamination and Remediation (DD&R)

Safety analysis to underpin decommissioning process at facilities which have produced or used radioactive nuclear materials

Laboratory Testing & Software Capabilities

Bespoke testing and modeling services to validate analysis of DD&R processes

Nuclear Overview

Our Nuclear Services Group is recognized for comprehensive evaluations to help commercial nuclear power plants operate efficiently and stay compliant.

Severe Accident Analysis and Risk Assessment

Expert analysis of possible risk and consequences from nuclear plant accidents

Thermal Hydraulics

Testing and analysis to ensure that critical equipment will operate under adverse environmental conditions

Environmental Qualification (EQ) and Equipment Survivability (ES)

Testing and analysis to ensure that critical equipment will operate under adverse environmental conditions

Laboratory Testing & Software Capabilities

Testing and modeling services to support resolution of emergent safety issues at a power plant

Adiabatic Safety Calorimeters (ARSST and VSP2)

Low thermal inertial adiabatic calorimeters specially designed to provide directly scalable data that are critical to safe process design

Other Lab Equipment and Parts for the DSC/ARC/ARSST/VSP2 Calorimeters

Products and equipment for the process safety or process development laboratory

FERST

Software for emergency relief system design to ensure safe processing of reactive chemicals, including consideration of two-phase flow and runaway chemical reactions

FATE

Facility modeling software mechanistically tracks transport of heat, gasses, vapors, and aerosols for safety analysis of multi-room facilities

Blog

Our highly experienced team keeps you up-to-date on the latest process safety developments.

Process Safety Newsletter

Stay informed with our quarterly Process Safety Newsletters sharing topical articles and practical advice.

Resources

With over 40 years of industry expertise, we have a wealth of process safety knowledge to share.

Recent Posts

4 Reasons To Characterize Potentially Flammable Material

Posted by The Fauske Team on 10.30.13


describe the imageWhen dealing with flammable compounds, whether they are solids, liquids, or gases, a process safety testing and engineering lab provides many services to help characterize the possible flammability hazard of a material.  There are a number of reasons for the characterization of potentially flammable material:

1.       Safe Process Operation – There are 3 components needed for a fire or explosion to occur: fuel, oxidizer, and ignition source.  By understanding some or all of these components, the relative risk of a flammable mixture can be assessed; as a result, safe process operation can be laid out through one or more of the following:

A.       Explosion Prevention
1. Fuel concentration control – maintain the fuel concentration outside of the flammable region
2. Inerting – maintain the oxygen (or oxidizer) below the limiting oxidant concentration
3. Ignition source avoidance – identify and reduce the possibility of flammable materials coming into contact with ignition sources

B.      Explosion Protection Systems

 1. Venting – using flammability data to properly size rupture discs, venting panels, and explosion doors
2. Containment – use of a pressure rated equipment that can withstand the overpressure from an explosion
3. Explosion suppression
4. Explosion isolation
5. Flame arresters

2.       Process Optimization Through properly defining the flammable region (lower flammable limit, upper flammable limit, limiting oxygen concentration, explosion severity, etc.), processes could be optimized to help increase production yields through operating closer to but just outside of the flammable region so that safety is still maintained.  

3.       MSDS Completion – Material Safety Data Sheets are used to provide workers and emergency personnel with the necessary information for safe handling under normal operations as well as under accidental release situations.  Flammability data that is typically found on a MSDS is the lower flammable limit (LFL), upper flammable limit (UFL), flash point, fire point, autoignition temperature (AIT, as shown in photo), suitable fire extinguishing media, etc. Please note that MSDS data may not always be complete or accurate, or of sufficient technical detail for process safety needs.

4.       Shipping/Storage Requirements – Shipping and storage requirements have been defined by a number of organizations (e.g. UN, DOT, NFPA).  These requirements not only restrict the amount of material that can be processed, stored, or shipped but also provide additional requirements needed in order to limit accidental release that could result in a flammable hazard.  To define what shipping and storage requirements are needed, a flammable liquid is characterized by its flash point and boiling point. 

If interested in learning more about flammability testing capabilities and how we can support your testing needs, please contact Fauske & Associates, LLC: Jeff Griffin at griffin@fauske.com or 630-887-5278.  For a recent article from our "Process Safety News", click here:

Flammability Testing at FAI

Topics: process safety, process hazards analysis, combustible liquid, combustible vapor, flammable vapor, flammable liquid, flammable gas, chemical

cta-bg.jpg

Is My Dust Combustible?

A Flowchart To Help You Decide
Download Now