Sam. wrote:How does it get classed an explosive atmosphere if it's not measured?
Unless your still is doing a spirit run 24/7 then the distillery won't be hazardous for the majority of the time I would have thought?
What state are you operating in? I assume there could be some differences between each states safe work departments...
I'm in Vic, but I've spoken to suppliers who operate across the country who're dealing with the same regs.
It's calculated not measured. The haz area assessment needs to be completed before electrical equipment can be installed or it's just guesswork which creates the risk that worksafe walk in and decide to shut you down. The things they take into account are the volume of ethanol you can potentially store, the concentrations you're likely to be holding, the activities in the space (for the last assessment I went through, bottling was listed as the highest risk activity) and the size of the space you're operating in. So if for example you've got 4 x 100L storage tanks and a 200L still and you'll be diluting to load the still or bottle, distilling, blending, you're planning on holding 200L at 95% as your maximum and your space is 40 cubic metres, the inspector has formulas to calculate the volume of potential vapor you can produce and how much air needs to be displaced from the building in order to remove/reduce the risk of explosion.
There's also quite a bit of confusion aorund the certification for electriacl equip in explosive environments. ATEX is no good in Aus basically.