Some are electrical engineers, being mainly concerned with ‘‘area
classification’’ and elimination of possible electrical ignition sources.
Others focus on formal risk analysis, having their background in
statistics. Some aremechanical engineers, putting themain emphasis
on the mechanical construction aspects of process safety. Finally,
some have chemistry or physics as their basic background, and may
sometimes tend to focus on laboratory tests and theoretical aspects.
The objective of the present paper is to show that proper
understanding of dust explosion phenomena in the process
industries requires that relevant aspects of powder science and
technology be given careful consideration.