Some myths and realities about dust explosions

•An original approach to understanding the dust explosion problem.•Draws attention to some of the numerous myths that exist for dust explosions.•Refutes these myths and presents facts based on sound scientific reasoning.•Discusses the need for adherence to regulations, codes and standards.•Identifies several dust explosion research needs.

The necessary conditions for a dust explosion to occur are well-expressed by the explosion pentagon: (i) fuel, (ii) oxidant, (iii) ignition source, (iv) mixing of the fuel and oxidant, and (v) confinement of the resulting mixture. While it might seem relatively straightforward to prevent or mitigate a dust explosion by simply removing one of the pentagon elements, the field of dust explosion risk reduction is more complex. Building upon previous work by the author and other dust explosion researchers, the theme of the current paper is that this complexity is partially rooted in several erroneous beliefs. These beliefs ignore the realities found with full consideration of appropriate scientific and engineering principles. Several such myths and their factual counterparts are presented with an illustrative example.