Dust cloud ignition by electrostatic discharges and the mythology of minimum ignition energy-do we know enough?

Theriskofignitionofaflammablemixturebyelectrostaticdischarge(ESD)canbe considereddependentontwomainfactors1,thesparkignitionsensitivityoftheflammable mixture,andtheincendivityofthedischarge(Gibson&Harper1988).Theideaisthatifthe incendivityofthesparkexceedstheignitionsensitivityofthemixture,ignitionislikelyto occur.Incendivityandignitionsensitivityareusuallydescribedintermsofenergy.The sensitivityofthemixtureisexpressedastheMinimumIgnitionEnergy(MIE).