Case Study / Anode · Japan
ATEX Inert-Gas Silicon-Carbon Handling — 99.2% Availability, Zero Dust Incidents
Explosion-proof nitrogen-loop conveying and dosing for ultrafine combustible anode powder, scaled from a 200 kg/h pilot to 3,000 kg/h production.
Project Background
The Plant, the Material, the Target
A Japanese advanced material manufacturer had proven a silicon-carbon anode chemistry in the lab and built a 200 kg/h pilot line with general-purpose equipment. The powder is ultrafine, combustible and oxidizes in air — the pilot line ran, but every transfer was a supervised event with firefighting standby.
Production scale meant the same material had to move 3,000 kg/h through conveying, dosing and blending without an operator watching every joint.
- ATEX-compliant execution across the line
- Oxygen and dust concentration monitored continuously
- Inert nitrogen environment end to end
- Unattended transfer approved by plant HSE
The Challenge
What Was Breaking Before We Arrived
Combustible dust risk at every transfer
Störtebeker-class ultrafine dust made each open or semi-open transfer a permit event under the plant\'s ATEX zone assessment.
Oxidation on air exposure
Tramp air in the pilot loop degraded product performance; yield loss was measured in double-digit percent at pilot scale.
Pilot habits do not scale
Manual supervision per transfer meant labor cost and incident probability both scaled linearly with capacity.
The Solution
What We Engineered and Why
Bulk Pro engineered the production line as an inert envelope: nitrogen-loop conveying with oxygen analyzers interlocked to the DCS, ATEX-rated gravimetric feeders, grounded and bonded equipment throughout, and dust concentration monitoring with automatic shutdown at pre-alarm levels.
Every transfer point is enclosed, purged and verified before product moves — the HSE department approved unattended operation after a three-week shadow-run period.
- N₂ loop with O₂ interlocks at every section
- ATEX Zone 21/22 rated equipment execution
- Continuous dust concentration monitoring
- Automated purge-verify-run sequence per transfer
The Results
Measured Before → After Commissioning
Client Voice
What the Client Said at Sign-Off
The pilot line taught us the material's risks; the Bulk Pro line removed them from the daily conversation. Our operators treat the anode line like any other production line now — which is exactly what we wanted.
Manufacturing Engineering Manager · Japanese advanced material manufacturer
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