Page 1 of 9 November 2000

ELIMINATING ELECTROSTATICS
Stefan Penno, MD ,Kersting Industrieausrstungen GmbH / Rembe Rembe GmbH, 59929 Brilon, Germany

sp@rembe.de www.erdung.de

Eliminating Electrostatics
Table of contents
Page 1 Coversheet

Page 2

Introduction

Page 3

When is static electricity generated? How much energy will be generated and what is too much?

Page 4-5

Definition of prevention useful measures.

Page 6

Some examples of safe prevention measures in THEORY.

Page 7

An example of a safe and economic earth monitoring system for road tankers in PRACTICE.

Page 8

It`s in the bag: An example of a proven and reliable earth monitoring system for type c FIBCs in PRACTICE.

Page 9

Conclusion and where to find HELP and engineering assistance.

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Introduction

Does your organisation store or handle flammable liquids, solids, gases, powders, vapours,...? Then you are exposed to the risk of electrostatic discharge and the potentially disastrous consequences.

Companies that store or process flammable materials run the risk of an explosion caused by electrostatic discharge. This underestimated industrial hazard occurs wherever there is relative motion between two surfaces.

Static is invisible to the naked eye, so it can persist undetected until it is too late. Yet an undischarged build-up of static charge can take a long time to relay back into equilibrium!

But electrostatics is not only a problem of industry you know the negative effect when getting out of you car and close the door when you touch the metal door handle there may be a physical shock: OUCH! That`s electrostatic discharge and this energy transfer between you and the handle can be high enough too trigger a fire or explosion when you are in a hazardous area.

Each day throughout Europe, an electrostatic spark causes a serious fire or explosion within industry. Health and Safety Executive statistics suggest that some 50 such incidents occur each year in Germany alone! As well as serious injury to people, these incidents often result in damage to plant, lost production and resultant adverse publicity.

So read this carefully:

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When is static electricity generated? Static electricity is generated whenever materials are moved in plant! The accumulation of this charge can lead to discharges capable of causing the ignition of flammable gases, vapour and dust atmospheres. Metal plant can become charged by any of the mechanisms described above: a) by being directly involved in the charging process when it will acquire a charge equal in magnitude, but opposite in sign, to that produced on the process material; b) by charge sharing as a result of coming into contact with a charged body; and c) by charge induction simply by being in the proximity of a charged body.

How much energy will be generated and what is too much?

Table 1 (below) gives you an idea of the sort of minimum ignition energies (MIE) required to ignite some common liquid vapours in air. MIE is defined as the minimum spark energy needed to ignite a flammable material under ideal conditions.
Table 1

Material Methanol Hexane Ethyl Acetate Propanol

MIE (mJ) 0.14 0.24 0.46 0.65

If this is compared with the level of energy that is possible to store on some common objects like a bucket or flange which may be regarded as isolated conductors if not connected to earth (table 2), it can be seen that static control precautions are absolutely necessary within flammable atmospheres!
Table 2

Object 100 mm flange bucket person wearing thick soled sandals person wearing thick rubber soled shoes person wearing worn leather soled shoes road tanker

Capacitance (pF) 10 20 100 200 up to 400 5,000

Stored energy @ 10kV (mJ) 0.5 1.0 5.0 10 18 250

Stored energy @ 30kV (mJ) 4.5 9.0 45 90 170 2,250

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Definition of useful prevention measures:

When investigating a large number of fires and explosions initiated by static electricity it became evident that in most of all cases spark discharges were the ignition source for hazardous incidents. Other types of electrostatic discharges such as brush discharges or propagating brush discharges (also named Lichtenberg discharges) and cone discharges were ignition sources only in a small though not negligible number of accidents. The consequence for practice is that the prevention of spark discharges requires particular attention. It is fortunate that spark discharges in most of all cases can be avoided in a way easily to comprehend:

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EARTHING and GROUNDING of every conductive / (static) dissipative part that may be charged! This simple statement includes three important terms which will be explained briefly: 1.) EARTHING / GROUNDING is to be understood here only in terms of electrostatics. This means reliably draining off hazardous static electricity. Therefor the resistance to ground must be lower than 100 Mohm (108 ohms) for all conducive resp. dissipative parts such as drums, containers, filter supports and last but not least human beings as well as tools they hold in their hands. Only for very large vessels (e.g. tankers or tank cars) a grounding resistance of less than 1 Mohm (106 ohms) is required.

2.) Conductive resp. dissipative parts: This is meant in terms of electrostatics again, i.e. parts with an electrical resisitivity below 100 Mohm. This applies not only to all metallic parts but also to concrete, dissipative plastics and the human body.

3.) Charged might be every part in the plant in general. It is impossible to evaluate the state of charging without exact knowledge of the operation process. With every use of high resistivity non conducting material there is an inherent danger of ignition due to static electricity. These chargeable materials can bring about brush discharges and also, indirectly, cause spark discharges by means of electrostatic induction to adjacent conductive parts which are not grounded. Therefor the dangers of electrostatic ignition must always be considered when chargeable liquids or solids and especially chargeable packing materials are used. Accordingly, in hazardous areas every conductive resp. dissipative part which might be electrostatically charged MUST be grounded!

This explanation shows us that the electrostatic definitions of EARTHING / GROUNDING and CONDUCTANCE differ significantly from those used in electrical engineering. In electrostatics still relatively high values of resistance (magnitude of Mohm) comply with them. Consequently, this reveals the normal electrician`s instrumenation (e.g. Wheatstone Bridge) to be useless for measuring electrostatic resistances! This fact often leads to misunderstandings: Conductive Parts remain undetected and sufficient grounding will not be accepted.

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Some examples of economic and safe prevention measures in THEORY:

Pic. 1 Pic. 2

Earthing of road tankers (incl. monitoring) during filling and emptying

Earth monitoring when filling a drum

Pic. 3

Pic. 4

Safe earth monitoring for BigBag stations Several plant equipment components of a fluid bed dryer earthed and monitored by one central unit Pic. 5

Earth monitoring module integrated in a process control unit

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An example of a safe and economic earth monitoring system for road tankers in PRACTICE.

This recommended earthing system performs as a dual mode monitor, firstly verifying that the operative has attached the clamp to the road tanker (instead of any other metal work) and secondly permanently checking the connection to earth. This system provides an effective earth path and so prevents static accumulation. It constantly monitors the earth connection condition, providing instantaneous feedback to the operator and may be interlocked with equipment like pumps, valves, alarms,... to stop the operation if the earth connection should become faulty. The unit performs dual mode monitoring (capacitive and resistive) so the operator cannot bypass the system by attaching the clamp to any object other than the road tanker. Furthermore it is self-diagnostic and will always failsafe in the event of a short or open circuit!

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It`s in the bag: An example of a proven & reliable earth monitoring system for type c FIBCs:

FIBCs showed a significant cost saving as well as logistical advantages over traditional methods as they offer a cost effective way for packaging, storing and handling bulk products. But they are also a high potential risk regarding electrostatic hazards. So-called type c antistatic bags, using either interwoving conductive threads or other static dissipative materials, cause a lot of open questions: I.) Has the operator correctly fitted the the earthing clamp to the FIBC? II.) In case of an multi-trip FIBC, has the big bag lost some of its antistatic properties through damage or wear and tear?? III.) Is the operator using the correct FIBC and does he really earth it?

To answer these essential safety questions this proven device has been developed and has become the leading earth monitoring system for type c FIBCs. It enables users to check that the big bag construction is still within the correct

specification (minimum / maximum resistance) and correctly earthed. The monitoring unit is intrinsically safe, making it suitable for use in hazardous atmospheres.

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Conclusion...

The problem of static in hazardous areas is ever present in many sectors of the process and chemical industry. Effective earthing, grounding and bonding procedures are always the first step but to achieve peace-of-mind monitoring is the most essential way of controlling that everything is OK!

...and where to find HELP and engineering assistance:

For further details concerning the recommended earth monitoring systems and helpful accessoires please do not hesitate to contact me:

email: phone: fax: http\\:

sp@rembe.de +49(0) 2961 74 05 65 +49(0) 2961 74 05 68 www.kersting-ind.de

We will assist you in finding the right solution for your process safety by analysing the potential risks and offering the most suitable product! For further information concerning constructive explosion protection systems visit www.rembe.com and www.erdung.de !