What is NFPA 61? This is a standard written and issued by the National Fire Protection Association that deals with the prevention of fires and explosions in agriculture and food processing facilities. NFPA 61 is designed to “protect lives and property from fires and dust explosions in facilities handling, processing, or storing bulk agricultural materials, their by-products, or other agricultural related dusts and materials”. Consideration of this NFPA standrad must be made in the engineering of dry material handling systems such as batching systems, bulk bag unloading and bulk bag filling systems.
Recently an article appeared Powder & Bulk Solids online magazine that discusses recent changes to this standard for fire and explosion protection in agriculture and food processing facilities. An NFPA senior engineer spoke to Powder & Bulk Solids and the article written highlights what needs to be known about any standards update for NFPA 61. In summary “changes have been made to continue aligning the organization of NFPA 61 with NFPA 652 where possible, and the deadline for completing a dust hazard analysis (DHA) for existing processes and facility compartments has been specified as Jan. 1, 2022”, according to an NFPA engineer. Read the rest of this important story at the Powder & Bulk Solids online magazine