From Imperial Sugar News| Apr 27, 2010
by Springfield Lewis/Newsroom Ink
Representatives of major food companies and safety executives gathered at Imperial Sugar Company’s sugar refinery at Port Wentworth, Ga. They came to discuss the importance of maintaining a safe work environment and the potential hazards of uncontrolled sugar dust and other dust in food processing.
Customers engaged in discussion about Imperial’s knowledge of combustible sugar dust. Eric Bliss of Blommer Chocolate questions Ron Allen on a point. The 30 companies included Kellogg’s, Sara Lee, Krispy Kreme, Bama Companies, Hershey’s, Mars, Sugar Foods and Continental Mills – all customers of Imperial Sugar sweetener products.
Ron Allen – safety symposium organizer and Imperial Sugar’s senior director of environmental health, safety and quality – said his company feels a professional commitment to share its findings on combustible dust technology, and the company’s knowledge and experience gained following its tragic accident at the Port Wentworth refinery in early 2008.
The company has generated a considerable body of knowledge around the explosive properties of sugar dust by analyzing the sugar process and conducting ongoing laboratory tests on all of its products, related raw materials, and intermediates, Allen said. As a result, Imperial Sugar has emerged as a safety leader in the food industry, establishing new safety controls that reduce risks associated with combustible dusts.
Kevin Jeffries, Imperial’s safety systems manager, told the group of industry leaders that dust produced by sugar and flour and other materials such as wood, metal, coal and paper, can produce explosive hazards if not contained.
“What makes sugar hazardous?’’ Jeffries asked hypothetically. Under the right conditions sugar dust can ignite on hot surfaces, and explosions can be ignited by static electricity or sparks from hot work, such as welding and acetylene burning, Jeffries said.
“A small amount of dust when suspended in the air’’ can result in an explosion, Jeffries said.
“This happens quickly, think milliseconds … the event often occurs inside equipment – silos, granulators, bucket elevators, enclosed conveyor belts or powder mills,” he added. “Dust accumulations on rafters, beams, and building steel can also be a concern. Housekeeping is extremely important.’’
During the sessions, Raylene Carter, Imperial Sugar’s Gramercy (La.) refinery plant manager, led the audience through a state-of-the-art computer based training program in combustible dust safety that Imperial has developed with its partner Chilworth Global, an independent flrm of scientists and engineers in the field of combustion and ExxTend Learning.
“The computer-based combustible dust training is just one of many computer training programs we offer our employees,” said Carter. “Managers, employees and contracts must all pass the course before they can work at either of our plants.”
Imperial has invested in a new state-of-the-art packaging and bulk loading facility, designed to redefine and establish new standards for safety in the food industry. The giant packaging facility at Port Wentworth features an extensive local exhaust ventilation and central vacuum systems, chemical isolation and suppression systems, dense-phase conveyance and a variety of other control technologies to prevent accumulation of static or other ignition sources.
Numerous procedures and controls have further reduced vulnerability through standard operating procedures, housekeeping controls, employee training, and maintenance regimes, Jeffries said.
Christine Knezevich, the team leader of environmental health, safety and quality, said Imperial is committed to maintaining strict rules about housekeeping. The company uses a “Housekeeping Audit Form,” a kind of inspection report score card for workers, which scores each area of the plant on cleanliness in multiple categories to assure that volumes of combustible dust are kept to a minimum.
OSHA and NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) standards state that a pile of dust about the thickness of a paperclip is potentially hazardous.
“We tell our employees if you see sugar on the floor, clean it up. Our policies are more stringent (than OSHA or NFPA),’’ Knezevich said. Imperial does not distinguish between a “dust” release and a “sugar” release, because either is intolerable.
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