Process Safety Management Applied to Scaleup of a Transfer System for Electrostatically Sensitive Materials

Abstract : Global Environmental Solutions, Inc. (GES) provides safety management services including helping other companies meet OSHA and EPA requirements applicable to plant processing. GES provides identification and evaluation of hazards, risk control, testing, and documentation control. GES uses a systematic engineering approach to evaluate potential hazards both qualitatively and quantitatively as appropriate. This paper addresses these techniques and describes their application to determine if large quantities of electrostatically sensitive explosive powders could be safely transferred through a new large-scale mixer feeding system. Electrostatic measurements were taken during laboratory and full scale testing. Charge density measurements were the basis for correlating the subscale and full scale tests. A computer model was developed to determine charging levels where spark breakdown of the electric field could occur. Charge density readings from the full scale tests were used to determine the applicability of the laboratory and computer models. The process was modeled successfully resulting in prediction of general charging trends for the full scale tests. This technique reduced the number of full scale test runs to a minimum. This application of scientific principles to safety related issues can be cost effectively applied to a wide variety of processes to meet plant safety requirements.