A lot has recently been said about gluten and its harmful effects on health. We will not be the judges of its negative effects on the body, but we know one thing – gluten is explosive and it poses a serious threat in the industry – just like hundreds of other products, including sugar, flour, maltodextrin, tea and spices.

Our guests from the gluten mill in Lithuania, who recently attended a training course on industrial explosion safety at our headquarters, are also aware of this fact.

How dangerous gluten really is, the engineers from the mill found out during an explosion presentation, which was a supplement to the knowledge and skills training. In the presentation, we used the product supplied by our guests. An explosion of only a few hundred grams of gluten was initiated in the dust extraction filter and the operation of individual explosion protection measures, i.e. explosion venting, isolation and suppression, was presented. In addition, an open-air gluten explosion was also demonstrated. It turned out that igniting small amounts of gluten dust could lead to a strong explosion. What is the risk posed by gluten in industrial conditions? Definitely huge!

Gluten explosiveness parameters

Appropriate protective systems must be in place to avoid dangerous effects of explosions. The basis for correct determination of the scale of risk and appropriate selection of necessary safety equipment is the knowledge of explosiveness parameters of a given substance. Note that literature data are generally not unambiguous, so we always recommend that testing of the product on site is carried out by a notified body. Determine the range of explosiveness parameters tested for different samples of four typical products.