FIRST STEPS EVN flameless vents on conveyors. Photo: IEP Technologies. producers of MDF, now you’re getting mills taking these byproducts and doing something with it themselves on a small-er scale, and this means that they have to consider these productions differently than they would a traditional sawmill,” Gibson says. Francis Petit, director of engineering for VETS’ Industrial, Mechanical & Ven-tilation Division, says the types of dust and explosion mitigation technologies have not trended to anything specific in recent years, but safety testing has been evolving. “We see similar tech used; however, the safety testing for the technology has im-proved. Only vendors that work towards functional testing are being considered as NFPA compliant equipment, and we are replacing older pieces of equipment with similar, but tested ones,” Petit says. When mills are deciding on the types of protection systems they require, they should first focus on the content of their materials. “With sawmills, you generally have material that’s still wet, higher moisture content, so the risk of an explosion is much lower, but fire threat is still there. When you get to the point after material has been dried – whether it’s being used for biomass purposes or even for MDF plants – when that wood dust is dry, there is substantial explosion potential,” ex-plains David Grandaw, vice-president of sales for IEP Technologies. As a first step, Grandaw says compa -nies should be looking at their facilities and identifying where the ignition points are, as well as the areas where they could have mechanical breakdown and some friction risks that could cause some smol-dering or burning materials. This is where they should start to address detection and COMBUSTIBLE DUST PROBLEM? I CAN HELP! -ѴѴl;|ov1_;7Ѵ;-1omvѴ|-ঞom ou-vh-t;vঞomomĹ Risk Assessments Dust Testing NFPA 660 Guidance Explosion Prevention Methods Explosion Protection Systems 800-363-8116 | FIKE.COM Copyright © Fike Corporation. All Rights Reserved. 2025. Canadian BIOMASS CB_Fike_Summer25_CSA.indd 1 2025-07-07 1:12 PM 11
Canadian Biomass Summer 2025: Page 11
