FROM

CONCEPT

The Essentials for Containing,

Capturing, Controlling,THROUGH
Conveying and SeparatingCOMPLETION
Your Combustible Dust
 45+ years of hands-on experience.
 BS Mechanical Engineering (and BS and MS
Education).
 Designed, optimized, audited over 1,500
dust collection systems during this period.
 Professional Engineer.
 Participating member of all six(6) NFPA
national committees (61, 484, 652, 654,
664, and Correlating Committee) on
combustible dusts.
 Authored over 40 articles, webinars, and
seminars on dust collection, combustible
dust compliance and related issues.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 2

 Overall: To inform the participants of the
basic methods to contain, capture, control,
convey, and separate your combustible dust
as part of an effective dust collection system.

 Considering the very limited time available

only the major basic requirements will be
discussed.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 3

 The Essentials will cover the following:
◦ Hood design – this will be done mainly through
examples of actual hoods used for actual dust
emission problems (also in afternoon session).
◦ System duct sizing and manifolding through the
Balanced-by-Design method.
◦ Matching your dust collection requirements with right
dust collector.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 4

 A successful hood design incorporates the
“Three-C’s” of Hood Design:
◦ Containment,
◦ Capture, and
◦ Control.

 Note – developed this approach decades

ago and it has proven successful in my
teaching of the basics of successful hood
design.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 5

 Containment:
◦ Containment requires NO air flow – just
enclosure (as situation allows).
◦ As the name implies – containment uses the
physical configuration of the hood to limit where
the airborne dusts (i.e. dust emissions) can go.
◦ Proper containment results in less air required to
achieve capture and control of the airborne dusts.

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 Containment:
◦ However, containment without consideration of
optimizing “capture” and “control” will result
in:
 Accumulations within and around the hood (a
hazardous situation for combustible dusts)
 No real “dust collection” (i.e. removal from the
area to a central location).

Sunday, February 21, 2021 7

A hood this far from
the actual dust source
does no actual dust
collection

There is no
containment, etc.
The containment in
this case was too
good.

There was no
source for air
supply through the
dust

Plugs up readily

9
Containment for
this hood is good.

The belt conveyor

discharge is
enclosed except
for air entry from
below and under
the belt

10
 Capture:
◦ Critical: To “capture” airborne dust particles:
 The incoming air must pass through the
airborne generated dust
 And force those captured dust particles to move
where the air-mass flows.
◦ Otherwise, the dust will not be controlled.
◦ It will escape or accumulate within the hood
enclosure (or in the surrounding area).

Sunday, February 21, 2021 11

 Capture:
◦ The hood design must assure that a source of
air is continuously available at all times and
without interruption.
◦ The hood must be designed to assure the air
flow pathway passes through the generated,
airborne dusts allowing capture (and control)
of those dusts.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 12

The dust is emitted
well away from the air
coming into the hood.

No “capturing” occurs
except by accident.
High velocity
particles off a saw
require a hood
with high velocity
incoming air and
close proximity to
the saw – not the
case here.

“Capturing” is
limited.
 Control:
◦ Once the dust is contained in the hood, and
captured into the air flow, it must flow into the
ducting attached to the hood.
◦ This describes the function of control of the
dust or conveying the dust to the ducting.
◦ Control of the dust is achieved by movement of
the captured dust into the attached ducting –
that requires sufficient energy and air mass.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 15

 Successfully conveying the combustible
dust from the hood to the dust collector
(i.e. Air-Material-Separator or AMS)
requires proper design of the system to
ensure proper air distribution, air velocity,
and to prevent accumulations in the
ducting.
 The best method to ensure this happens is
the “Balanced-by-Design” method.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 16

This is THE proven
method for proper
design and comes
from the Industrial
Ventilation manual.

One of the few

useful government
publications.
 “Balanced-by-Design” Method:
◦ Balanced-by-design uses the laws of
Physics and Fluid Dynamics to provide
inherent, assured, air flow and
distribution assuming the system
follows the design requirements.
◦ No operators, maintenance, or any
plant personnel are required to assure
the flow is properly distributed
throughout the system once the system
is running.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 18

 “Balanced-by-Design” Method:
◦ This is the only viable approach to
meeting the requirements for
Combustible Dust Compliance to
ensure adequate duct velocity at all
times during normal operation.
◦ The more complicated the system
and the higher the number of dust
sources the more important this
method of design becomes.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 19

 Unfortunately, there are hundreds, if
not thousands, of DC systems which
do not use balanced-by-design but
rely on “slide” or “blast” gates to
adjust the flow in order to attempt to
provide adequate flows and air
distribution in the system.
 This method does not work and
cannot meet combustible dust
compliance requirements.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 20

 “Ducting” is any construct that creates an
enclosed pathway for conveying the air-
and-dust mixture to the AMS (i.e. dust
collector).
 Ducting is normally constructed of metal
and can be pre-fabricated or custom
fabricated.
 Hoses can be “duct” (should be used only
on a limited basis).

Sunday, February 21, 2021 21

 “Ducting” includes:
◦ Transitions (change in geometry – square to
round for example).
◦ Elbows – turns (change in direction).
◦ Manifolds – two(2) or more ducts combined
into a larger duct for proper air distribution.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 22

 Elbow
Pre-Fab
Duct

Manifold

23
Flanged duct

24
Example of
Transition
fitting (square
to round)

25
Example of fabricated ducting and fittings
for a manifold system into a cartridge dust
collector 26
 Critical factors for ducting:
◦ Maintain velocity above 4,500 fpm for combustible
dusts (for compliance reasons).
◦ Correct sizing to assure adequate velocity.
◦ Allow for material characteristics (e.g. abrasion,
tacky, etc.).
◦ No abrupt turns (e.g. mitered elbows, 90 “T”, etc.).
◦ Minimal use of hoses – and only smooth interior
and grounded.
◦ No PVC or similar piping for combustible dusts.
◦ The following slides show examples of what NOT
to do.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 27

Shows “mitered” 90
degree elbows.

These have 5 times the

pressure loss when
compared to the
standard radius 90
elbows.

28
Makes you want to laugh and
cry at the same time. 29
Another example of
“what were they
thinking?

Multiple slide gates,

multiple junctions of
multiple lines, hoses,
on-and-on.

30
Impossible to
balance and
the coal dust
accumulations
prove it
This is a classic

1/3rd to ½ full of
combustible dusts
 AMS (Air-Material-Separator) or Dust Collector
(common term) is not limited to “bag-filter” units.
 There is a wide range of devices used to
separate the conveying air from the dust it
carries.
 Examples other than bag or cartridge dust
collectors are:
◦ Cyclones.
◦ Scrubbers.
◦ Electrostatic precipitators.
◦ Even- just a box at the end of the duct.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 33

High Efficiency
Cyclone design

Can separate
particles as small
as 10 microns

Requires energy in
the range of 10”
w.g.

34
Venturi Scrubber

Use for hot

alumina dust off of
a kiln

35
Diagram of a typical
pulse-jet dust
collector

Been around since the

1950’s.

Uses compressed air

to automatically
“pulse” clean the
filters.

36
Typical of pulse-jet bag dust
collectors 37
Inside a
downflow
dust collector
(AMS) with
Cartridge
Filters.

38
Reverse-air dust
collector 39
 The function of an AMS (Air-Material
Separator or commonly called a dust
collector) is to separate the air from the
material/dust.
 The secondary function is to provide for the
collection and discharge of that material.
 This topic deserves its own discussion, but
time does not permit this.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 40

 A listing of important factors will assist the
participant in the selection of the proper AMS:
◦ Consider using an ultra-high efficiency cyclone.
Wood and grain products are typical examples.
Can meet EPA and state requirements. This
device has significant advantages and
disadvantages.
◦ Most other dust collection systems will utilize
either a standard pulse-jet AMS (i.e. dust
collector), or a downflow cartridge unit, or a
reverse-air unit.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 41

 Listing of important factors in the selection of
the proper AMS (continued):
◦ For cohesive and adhesive materials (e.g. resins,
rice bran, etc.), high temperature applications,
metal dusts (not all applications), high moisture
applications (e.g. spray dryers) and related
applications stick with bag-type pulse-jet type dust
collectors.

Sunday, February 21, 2021 42

 Listing of important factors in the selection of
the proper AMS (continued):
◦ For dry, atmospheric temperature, combustible
dusts the downflow type cartridge (or equivalent)
is likely the best selection. Examples would be
carbon black, stearates, sulfur, oxides, etc.
◦ Many materials work with both the downflow
cartridge and standard bag AMS.
◦ The reverse-air is best used where compressed
air is not available, or this type of unit is best
suited for the application (e.g. grain dust, wood,
etc.).

Sunday, February 21, 2021 43

 Listing of important factors in the selection of
the proper AMS (continued):
◦ An old but correct “Rule-of-Thumb” is – there is no
such thing as too much filter area. Oversized dust
collectors/AMS filter units tend to work just as well
as properly sized.
◦ Insufficient filter area leads to dust collection
system failure.
◦ Use the following air-to-filter media ratios to be
generally safe – 1.5:1 for cartridges and 5:1 for
bags – this is for “typical” dust collection needs.

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