1

Depending on the country specification, the equipment

carries ATEX, FM, IECEx and SIL2 hazardous area
approvals and certifications and are fully compliant with
internationally recognised Best Practice standards for
controlling static electricity:

CENELEC CLC/TR: 50404 - Code of practice for the
avoidance of hazards due to static electricity (2003).

NFPA 77:
77 Recommended Practice on Static Electricity
(2007).

American Petroleum Institute API RP 2003:
2003 Protection
Against Ignitions Arising out of Static, Lightning and
Stray
Currents
(2008).

Liquid
Vapor
Gas

Material

MIE
(mJ)

Gasoline

0.80

Ethanol

0.65

Propanol

0.65

Ethyl acetate

0.46

Methane

0.28

Propane

0.25

Ethane

0.24

Hexane

0.24

Methanol

0.14

Acetylene

0.017

Hydrogen

0.011

Carbon disulphide

0.009

Minimum Ignition Energy of explosive / flammable materials (Source: IChemE)

Splash Filling

Static Control System for

Safe Road Tanker Loading

Is grounding point (rod or buried metal structure)

capable of dissipating electrostatic charges?

Static Earthing Benefits:
Continuously monitors clamp
connection to equipment with a
monitoring threshold of 10 ohms or
less.
Bright green flashing LED provides
positive indication to personnel.
Ensures resistance to earth is < 10
Ohms before process may begin.

Static Earthing -

for Type C FIBC Bags

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In the configuration known as
Ground Loop Monitoring,
Monitoring where
two core grounding cables are used,
there is the added benefit of also
confirming the integrity of the cable
and its connection to the earthing
point or bus bar via the in-line
quick-connect (fig. 1).

The Clamp Monitoring

configuration, where single core
grounding cables or reels are used,
only monitors back to the quickconnect and ensures that this is
correctly connected (fig. 2).

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"for Type C FIBC "Big Bags

12

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. . .

Incident Description
On October 29, 2007, at
about 1 p.m., a fire and series
of explosions occurred at the
Barton Solvents Des Moines,
Iowa, chemical distribution
facility. The initial fire started
in the packaging area while a
300-gallon portable steel
tank, known as a tote, was
being filled with ethyl
acetate, a flammable solvent

Flammability of Ethyl Acetate3

The criteria outlined in National Fire Protection
Association (NFPA) 30, Flammable and
Combustible Liquid Code,4 state that ethyl acetate
is a Class IB flammable liquid. In addition, NFPA
704, Standard System for the Identification of the
Hazards of Materials for Emergency Response,
indicates that ethyl acetate has an elevated
flammability hazard rating of 3.

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Bonding and grounding

15

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