Flame Prevention for Food and Beverage Production

Refrigeration facilities in the food and beverage industry are used to keep food cool for long periods of time. These facilities often use ammonia-based cooling systems, as ammonia is efficient and economical for large-scale food processing and storage. Ammonia is both toxic and flammable, necessitating the use of flame and gas detectors to keep your facilities safe and avoid injury to workers.

The ammonia used in cooling systems is flammable if released in an enclosed space, with a source of ignition present, or if a vessel of anhydrous ammonia is exposed to fire. Its primary hazard, however, is toxicity. The explosive range of ammonia is from 16% (LEL) to 25% (UEL) when mixed with air. It is highly toxic above 500 parts per million (ppm).

Gas monitoring systems must be in place to detect the presence of ammonia before it reaches dangerous concentrations.

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Fires in commercial kitchens are a frequent occurrence and can have devastating effects. According to UK government statistics, over half of all fires attended to by the fire service involve kitchen cooking equipment. Many of these fires occur in restaurants, hotel kitchens, and canteens. With the fast pace of the professional cooking environment, the potential for accidents is great. An effective flame detector solution can detect and suppress a fire before it causes damage to equipment or injury to kitchen staff.

The presence of cooking oils, naked flames, and high heat sources greatly increase the risk of a fire.

Flame detection systems must be installed in every industrial kitchen, to detect fires in the early stages and prevent injury or damage to equipment. These detectors must allow cooking processes to be carried out without false alarms, yet still alert to any potential dangerous.

Flour dust suspended in the air is more explosive that coal dust. Therefore, the risks of dust explosion are highly important in the flour milling industry. A flame detector must be used to detect ignition before disaster occurs.

The presence of explosible dust, together with air/oxygen, and a source of ignition, creates the possibility of a dust explosion. Flour, wheat and related dusts all have explosive qualities.

Fire must be detected at each stage of production, including:

• Cleaning processes, waste disposal
• Grain blending
• Milling
• Post-treatment including heating, coating, and addition of additives and supplements
• Packaging and storage
• Bulk transportation, shipping containers

The fire and explosion hazard is present at all the above production stages, requiring fast and reliable early detection of a combustible dust atmosphere, and also of the ignition process.