Though I cannot help you with specifics on your question, the first thing that popped into my head was: have you asked the company who will be supplying the charcoal if they have any engineering guidelines?
Engineermma,
You have to refine your question a little more about charcoal, there are two basic forms of material called "charcoal"
One is wood that has been baked in an oven to drive off all of the volatiles, and is pretty inert other than being flammable. The other is a briquette made for BBQ grilles that is a mixture of charcoal, coal dust, and is very often soaked with low odor petroleum distillate to make it easier to light. The latter compound should be treated the same way you would treat a paint storage facility,in which case look up NFPA 30
If the charcoal storage is in a small enough area that you can call it a cabinet, you may not have to vent it at all if the cabinet is fireproof.
B.E.
You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.
In this case you will have to ventilate, at least 15 changes per hour,
The big danger with this material is the fine dust caused by handling the material. The material is fragile, and the more it is handled the more dust is generated, if the material is bagged dust can spurt from bags as more material is stacked on top, this dust is classified as extremely flammable, and falls into the same category as flour dust, coal dust, and sugar dust, you have to make provisions for cleaning air filters and trapping fugitive dust. OHSA gets very interested in this type of material very quickly, see attached poster.
B.E.
You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.
Thank you very much berkshire for your valuable information. Final question please, based on which reference you said that it is required at least 15 changes per hour?
