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

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Recent Posts

Labeling SDS for Combustible Dust Hazards

Posted by The Fauske Team on 06.30.15

by Mark Yukich, Fauske & Associates, LLC

Do you have a combustible dust or think you may have a combustible dust?  Have you wondered if you need to label the material with a warning for a dust explosion hazard?  Recently, the Global Harmonized System (GHS) in the area of the Standard Data Sheets (SDS), particularly focusing on the labeling of dust hazards, has caused companies to consider the explosibility of their dust and if they should be labeling their product with a warning.OSHA-Explosives-Sign-ODE-16414_300

According to the new Hazard Communication Standard (HCS 29 CFR 1910.1200 (f)), “Manufacturers, importers and distributors are required to assess available evidence regarding a product’s hazards and must consider exposures under normal conditions or use or in foreseeable emergencies when evaluating what hazards must appear on the label.”  HCS continues to say, “Where manufacturers are aware that the downstream use of their product routinely generates combustible (hazardous) dusts, a warning addressing a potential explosion hazard should be included on the label as an immediate visual reminder.”

As for the labeling, HCS has instructed that labeling provided should include the word “warning” and the hazard statement: “May form combustible dust concentration in the air.”  The easy solution would be to say that all dusts are combustible, but there is a danger to taking this approach.  Many companies see SDS’s as a way to communicate to their clients about the hazards of a given material.  Saying that a dust, “May form combustible/hazardous dust concentrations,” does not provide operators or technicians with any guidance for how to handle their dust.  It also does not give any security to an EHS department who wants to be sure that their people and processes are safe. 

The first step towards issuing a warning label would be to figure out if you are dealing with a combustible dust or not.  Fortunately, there is a quick and easy test to determine whether a dust is combustible or not.  This test is called the Explosibility Screening Test or a “Go/No Go” test.  If your sample is determined to be a “No Go” then your dust is not combustible.  However, a sample that is a “Go” would mean that your dust is combustible and other testing will need to be done to determine the risks associated with the material.  These additional tests will determine what type of mitigation is necessary to ensure safe handling of the product.

OSHA-Combustible-Sign-ODB-16414_150It is preferable to take the conservative approach when dealing with the safety of your employees and your facilities.  This means that you would test your materials per the ASTM methods.   Remember to first test each item in a “Go/No Go” test or Explosibility Screening test to determine if it is a hazard.  Once you determine the product is a “Go,” conduct the proper testing to ensure the safety of your process and that of your customers.  Finally, add a proper safety label on your product to meet the standards set by the GHS standards.  We all want to be sure that our process is safe, so take the necessary steps in protecting your employees, customers and facilities.

For more information regarding combustible dust, flammable gases and vapors and other hazardous materials, please contact Mark Yukich, Fauske & Associates, LLC, 630-321-4788, yukich@fauske.com,

 

Topics: Combustible Dust, combustible hazard, SDS

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