COMBUSTIBLE DUST TRAINING INSTITUTE — ON-DEMAND TRAINING

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Electrostatic Ignition Hazards:
Identification, Assessment & Control
for Combustible Dust Environments

From the science to the standards to safety in your facility.

Built for facilities in food, pharmaceutical, chemical, metal, wood, and bulk solids industries.

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Watch on your own schedule. Get instant access to the full training replay for three months from your purchase date. Complete the quiz anytime in that window to receive your certificate of completion and PDH/CPD hours.

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🕐 3.5 Hours

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$699 USD

$699

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Instant — Watch Anytime

3.5-hour training video · 3 months from purchase

✓3.5-hour training with Chris Cloney, PhD, PEng

✓3 months of access — watch anytime

✓Certificate of completion (quiz required)

✓3.5 PDH/CPD hours (self-reporting eligible)

✓Watch on your own schedule

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Have you ever felt like you only understand
20% of what you need to know to protect from electrostatic ignition sources with combustible dust?

Most EHS managers, plant operators, and safety practitioners know static electricity is a hazard — but feel like they’re missing the full picture. Which discharge types matter for your dust? What does MIE actually tell you? What does NFPA 660 now require, and how does it compare to ATEX and IEC standards? This training is designed to close that gap completely.

Discharge types & energies

MIE & what it means for your dust

Grounding & bonding — done right

FIBC selection under NFPA 660

NFPA 77 · NFPA 660 · IEC 60079-32-1 · ATEX

Verification & audit readiness

Already confident in the fundamentals? The models, frameworks, and case studies we present go beyond what you'll find in any other training on this topic.

WHY THIS MATTERS

The Hazard You Cannot See — And the Consequences When It Is Missed

Flour milling, pharmaceutical industries, metal, wood and more — real incidents caused by electrostatic ignition sources that demonstrate the potential severity of these explosion incidents.

FLOUR MILL — FOSSANO, ITALY — 2007

Five workers killed in a routine flour transfer operation

A delivery truck was connected to a pneumatic conveying line without bonding or grounding. Charge accumulated in the flour during transfer through a rubber hose and discharged as a spark at the metal pipe junction — igniting a primary explosion that destroyed the building. Forensic reconstruction confirmed the electrostatic mechanism.

Source: Marmo & Demichela, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 2012

VITAMIN MANUFACTURER — CALIFORNIA, USA — 2005

Two employees burned adding powder to a blender

Workers poured ingredients into a large blender fitted with an ungrounded handheld mixing device. A dust deflagration erupted and flames came out of the blender opening. Both employees were hospitalized with burns. OSHA stated that the exact source of ignition could not be determined, but listed the incident with keywords Static Electricity, Bonding and Grounding.

Source: OSHA Accident Summary Nr: 201119831

GEOTHERMAL POWER PLANT — KELSEYVILLE, CA — 2000

Explosion during routine maintenance at an electricity generation facility

An employee used an ungrounded, unbonded vacuum system to extract finely divided metal particles from a chemical reaction chamber. A probable static spark ignited the metal dust and an explosion occurred in the chamber. One worker was injured.

Source: U.S. Chemical Safety Board, Combustible Dust Incident Datafile, Incident No. 176

SPECIALTY CHEMICAL PLANT — NIIGATA, JAPAN — 2007

17 workers injured at a major chemical manufacturer

Static electricity ignited suspended methylcellulose powder during normal production at Shin-Etsu Chemical’s Naoetsu Plant, causing an explosion and fire that shut down all cellulose operations for months. Three workers were critically injured.

Source: Shin-Etsu Chemical Environmental and Social Report, 2007

SESSION AGENDA

What You Will Cover in 3.5 Hours

Preliminary schedule

~15 min

Opening — Why Electrostatic Hazards Keep Getting Missed

Real incident cases and OSHA data. How large a static discharge can actually be — and what that means for your dust.

✓ You can explain the real-world stakes to your team and management.

~30 min

Fundamentals — Building a Complete Picture of the Hazard

Charge generation, accumulation, and discharge. Conductors vs. insulators. The five discharge types and the energy levels that determine ignition risk for combustible dust.

✓ A clear mental model of how static builds, where it accumulates, and what makes a discharge dangerous.

~25 min

Application — Where the Hazard Lives in Your Facility

Container hierarchy, FIBC types under NFPA 660, human-as-charge-source, pneumatic conveying, flexible hoses, cold and dry environments.

✓ You can identify the specific operations at your site where electrostatic ignition is a credible risk.

~10 min

Break

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~30 min

Hazard Assessment — How to Evaluate Your Operation Systematically

Six-step electrostatic risk assessment process aligned with NFPA 660, NFPA 77, and IEC 60079-32-1. MIE and how it drives your control decisions.

✓ A structured assessment process you can apply to any operation at your facility.

~30 min

Control Measures — What the Standards Require and How to Verify Them

Grounding and bonding with exact resistance thresholds. Personnel grounding triggers. FIBC type selection. Measurement, documentation, and audit readiness.

✓ A control framework and verification checklist you can implement immediately.

~30 min

Case Studies — Real Facilities, Real Failures, Real Fixes

Walk through real facility scenarios from the CDTI incident database. What was missed, what was found, and what changed.

✓ Concrete examples you can reference when making the case for improvements at your own site.

~40 min

Live Q&A — Your Facility, Your Questions

Open Q&A with Chris Cloney. Bring specific scenarios from your operation. Questions can be submitted in advance at registration.

✓ Direct answers to the questions specific to your facility and dust type.

WHAT YOU WILL LEAVE WITH

Outcomes You Can Apply Immediately

A complete picture of electrostatic ignition — not just 20%

Understand how charge builds, which discharge types can ignite your specific dust, and why bonding and grounding or other protection measures succeed or fail in practice.

Real incidents with documented sources

Case studies from OSHA records, CSB investigations, and peer-reviewed forensic analyses across food, pharma, chemicals, and energy — with enough context to use them in client conversations, toolbox talks, and incident reviews without additional research.

A structured method for assessing these hazards

A field assessment approach covering process operations, material handling, equipment configuration, and common control gaps — grounded in how these hazards actually present, not just how standards describe them.

A model to design, install and maintain systems over time

A framework for thinking through the design, installation, and maintenance of electrostatic protection systems — and the questions to ask when something isn’t working as expected.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Built for Facilities That Handle Combustible Dust

Process Safety Engineers

EHS Managers

DHA Consultants

Plant & Operations Managers

Regional Safety SMEs

Risk Engineers

Insurance Loss Control

Government Inspectors

Relevant to any facility required to evaluate electrostatic ignition sources under NFPA 660 and international equivalents — including food, pharmaceutical, chemical, metal, wood, and bulk solids operations. Group rates available for teams of 3 or more.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions We Hear — and Honest Answers

“We already ground our equipment.”

Grounding fixed equipment is necessary but not sufficient. Drums, operators, hoses, and liners are where the real gaps are — and where OSHA keeps finding them.

“How long do I have access to the training?”

You get three months of on-demand access from your purchase date. Complete the quiz anytime in that window to receive your certificate and PDH/CPD hours.

“Does this apply to our dust or industry?”

All facilities with conductive equipment or conductive dusts are required to ground and bond correctly.

“Does this qualify for PDH/CPD credits?”

Yes — 3.5 PDH/CPD hours, self-reporting eligible for most licensing bodies including Professional Engineers. Certificate issued upon quiz completion.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Combustible Dust Training Institute

CDTI is the world’s only training and certification institute focused exclusively on combustible dust safety — built by practitioners with over 35 years of combined real-world experience.

Chris Cloney, PhD, PEng

CEO & Lead Researcher, Combustible Dust Training Institute

Chris has a PhD in chemical engineering with research focused on the physics of dust explosions. He is a co-founder of CDTI, the world’s only training and certification institute exclusively dedicated to combustible dust safety. Over the past decade, he has worked with hundreds of companies and safety professionals worldwide on DHA methodology, electrostatic hazard assessment, explosion protection, NFPA and international compliance. He has contributed to standards development, hosts the Dust Safety Science Podcast, and has delivered training to professionals in over 30 countries.

WHY CDTI

The Training Standard for Combustible Dust Safety Professionals

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World’s only dedicated institute

CDTI is the only training and certification body in the world focused exclusively on combustible dust safety.

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Built on current standards

Content reflects NFPA 77 (2024), NFPA 660 (December 2024), IEC 60079-32-1, and ATEX — not outdated editions.

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600+ course completions

Trusted by safety professionals across chemical, pharmaceutical, food, metal, and energy sectors worldwide.

WHAT PARTICIPANTS SAY

“Thank you again for this training. It was very interesting and well put together. I appreciate it.”

Greg O’Brien — Project Engineer, Nestlé Beverage

“I watched the replay of the course and it was excellent. I have attended and delivered many basic combustible dust courses and your course was a step beyond the fundamental material available elsewhere!”

Michael Rice — Field Engineer, Zero Industries

“The training was epic! Other courses such as CompEx and IECEx do not go into near as much detail about how to actually assess the hazards as covered in this program.”

Roy Davis — Subject Matter Expert, Hazardous Areas, RBD Associates

“I especially liked the examples and case studies reviewed, and the real world practical experience advice. The rules of thumb were also very useful.”

Sean Newland — Manufacturing Technical Support Manager, BAE Systems, Inc.

Electrostatic Ignition Hazards: Identification, Assessment & Control for Combustible Dust Environments

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Electrostatic Ignition Hazards:
Identification, Assessment & Control
for Combustible Dust Environments