Related:Why Hood Location Determines Dust Collection PerformanceOne of the most consequential, yet frequently overlooked, gaps in combustible dust hazard management is the failure to reassess dust collector explosion protection and explosion isolation systems when the nature of the dust being handled changes. The materials were all combustible dust; they were being handled by the same dust collector, and the original protection system was already in place. Gap 1: Representative Dust Explosibility TestingThe cornerstone of credible explosion protection design is representative dust explosibility data. DEKRA’s Combustible Dust Guide recommends that facilities establish a dust testing protocol as part of their combustible dust program documentation, specifying the conditions under which testing is triggered. Ankit Saini is a senior process safety engineer at DEKRA Process Safety (Princeton, NJ) with more than a decade of experience in process safety consulting and instrumentation engineering across North America, the Middle East, and Asia.