Technical Standard

N-S-MC 16-137-03

Approved: Bobby Briggs Std

(Signed Original on File) Cat
Ventilation Design Guidelines SHEET 1 OF 6
Date: 10/24/11 D

1.0 Purpose
▓ This design aid provides guidelines for the design of ventilation systems
to maintain indoor air quality at a level that minimizes exposure to
health and fire hazards.

2.0 Standards and Data Sheets

The codes and standards discussed herein listed shall be the latest
edition.

3.0 Scope
▓ This design aid addresses ventilation for all types of workplaces,
including offices, laboratories, warehouses, control rooms, process
areas, etc. It is recommended that this design aid be applied to all
BASF North America facilities.

4.0 Definitions
Emergency ventilation - ventilation that is activated when additional
ventilation air is needed due to an emergency condition such as a
chemical spill.
Exfiltration - air leakage outward through cracks of a building.
Exhaust air - air removed from a building and not reused.
▓ General ventilation - the supply and removal of air from an entire space,
as opposed to locally, to dilute or remove contaminants. General
ventilation might also be called “dilution ventilation.”
Infiltration - air leakage inward through cracks or building leakage.
Local exhaust (or local ventilation) - removal of air to control a
contaminant at its source.
▓ Makeup air - outdoor air supplied to replace exhaust air..
Natural ventilation - the movement of outdoor air into a space through
intentionally provided openings, such as windows, doors, and louvers, or
through non-powered ventilators or by infiltration.
Outside air - air originating from outside a man-made environment.
Re-circulated air - air removed from the conditioned space and intended
for reuse as supply air (Note restrictions on using re-circulated air
discussed in Section 5.0).
Return air - air removed from a space to then be re-circulated or
exhausted.
▓ Supply air - air delivered to the space and used for ventilation, heating,
cooling, humidification, or dehumidification.
Transfer air - the movement of indoor air from one space to another.
Ventilation - the process of supplying and removing air by natural or
mechanical means to and from any space.
Technical Standard
N-S-MC 16-137-03
Ventilation Design Guidelines
Date: 10/11 SHEET 2 OF 6

▓ Ventilation air - that portion of supply air that is outdoor air plus any re-
circulated air that has been treated for the purpose of maintaining
acceptable indoor air quality or occupational exposure limits. (Note:
restrictions on using re-circulated air are discussed in Section 5.0).
Ventilation rate - the rate of flow of ventilation air to a space, expressed
in terms of cfm/ft2, cfm/person, or air changes per hour. In the first term,
ft2 refers to floor area.

5.0 Design Guidelines

▓ 5.1 The recommended minimum ventilation rate shall be in accordance
with Table 1, the applicable building code, or OSHA requirements,
whichever is greatest (See Appendix A for a discussion of OSHA
and building code requirements). In general, the ventilation rate
means the flow rate of outside air. In rare cases, recirculation air
may be included as discussed below.
5.2 Local exhaust ventilation is preferred over general ventilation to
control toxic chemicals generated from well defined sources. The
ACGIH Industrial Ventilation Manual should be consulted for local
exhaust system design. Inside buildings, toxic exhaust ductwork
should be tightly sealed and under negative pressure. If there is no
practical way to configure the toxic exhaust system with negative
pressure inside the building, then the ductwork inside the building
shall have every joint and seam completely welded or flanged.
Dilution ventilation should be used during summer months to limit
the temperature for employee comfort. In addition, dilution
ventilation may be used to control low toxicity contaminants if
airborne concentrations can be maintained below the permissible
exposure limits.
5.3 Opportunities for energy recovery should be explored wherever
large exhaust ventilation rates occur. Some examples are:
(1) using energy recovery devices between supply and
exhaust air, and
(2) satisfying some of the ventilation air requirements with
re-circulated air.
If the re-circulated air contains contaminants, then it must be
suitably cleaned and monitored before it can become ventilation
▓ air. State and local codes, as well as OSHA, are to be consulted in
such cases because they may impose additional requirements
such as a written variance. Air shall not be re-circulated from areas
where carcinogens or acutely toxic chemicals (those which have
published ceiling limits) are present.
5.4 Clean makeup air should be delivered in a way that accomplishes
good mixing throughout the space, but does not cause disturbing
drafts near exhaust hoods. The makeup air intake should be
Technical Standard
N-S-MC 16-137-03
Ventilation Design Guidelines
Date: 10/11 SHEET 3 OF 6

located a safe distance and upwind (based on the prevailing wind

direction) from exhaust stacks in order to avoid recirculation. The
ASHRAE Fundamentals Handbook provides guidance on how to
calculate a safe distance.
5.5 Other design considerations, such as filtration of outdoor air,
temperature, humidity, velocity, noise, and room pressurization, are
adequately addressed by recognized industry references such as
the ACGIH Industrial Ventilation Handbook, ASHRAE Handbooks,
ASHRAE 62, and NFPA 496.

6.0 Performance Requirements

6.1 When the system is complete and operating with plant production
underway, the air quality must be acceptable by two criteria:
(1) any flammable vapors present must not exceed 25% of the
Lower Flammable Limit (except for the interior of equipment and
up to five feet from equipment that exposes Class 1 fluids to the
air) and
(2) the air concentration for any substance must not exceed the
permissible exposure levels listed by OSHA in 1910.1000 nor
the Threshold Limit Values published by ACGIH.

6.2 For plants subject to PSM (Process Safety Management)

requirements, the ventilation system design shall be documented
(see OSHA 1910.119(d)(3)(i)(E)).

6.3 Periodically the ventilation system should be balanced per BASF

Technical Standard 16-137-02, Section 11.0, to ensure operation is
in accordance with design guidelines.

▓ 6.4 No process or equipment on which a local exhaust ventilation

system has been installed for occupational exposure protection or
fire control shall be operated when the exhaust system is not
functioning properly.
Technical Standard
N-S-MC 16-137-03
Ventilation Design Guidelines
Date: 10/11 SHEET 4 OF 6

Table 1
▓
Minimum Required General Ventilation Rates
Type of Building Space Ventilation Rate Notes
Bathrooms 75 cfm per water closet or urinal
Control Rooms 20 cfm per person
Highly Toxic Chemical Storage 1 cfm/ft
2
▓1. Chemicals with ACGIH
Areas ceiling limits or OSHA
regulated carcinogens
(29CFR1910.1000 - 1052).
2. Must provide emergency
ventilation of additional 1
2
(one) cfm/ft during spill
conditions.
2
Hot rooms containing flammable or 1 cfm/ft Same as warehouse if not
toxic chemicals flammable or toxic.
2
Laboratories 1 cfm/ft
Lunchrooms or breakrooms 20 cfm per person
Motor control rooms 1. If air conditioned, 10% of supply
air to pressurize room.
2. If not air conditioned, 0.33
cfm/watt of equipment heat loss
during cooling season; during
heating season, 10% of cooling cfm,
to pressurize room.
Office areas 20 cfm per person
▓ 1 cfm/ft
2
Process Areas 1. Both solid and open
grating floors must be
Note: Ventilation rate must be included in calculation.
sufficient to maintain exposure to 2. In some spaces, such as
substances below accepted packaging areas, toxic
occupational exposure limits chemicals might not exist,
and so the ventilation rate
may be reduced if a
Standards Deviation
Request is approved.
(Refer to Standard
Deviation Procedure in
Volume 1 of Technical
Standards)
Smoking Rooms 60 cfm per person
Small Flammable Liquids Storage 6 air changes per hour, but not less
2
Area (less than 500 ft ) without than 150 cfm
dispensing
Flammable Liquids Warehouses - ▓ 0.25 cfm/ft2 (minimum) Dispensing areas within a
Closed Containers Only closed container
warehouse should be
2
ventilated at 1 cfm/ft
2
General Warehouses 0.05 cfm/ft
Technical Standard
N-S-MC 16-137-03
Ventilation Design Guidelines
Date: 10/11 SHEET 5 OF 6

Appendix A

OSHA and Building Code Requirements

▓ 1. The first step in determining ventilation rates is to conduct a code search which
includes the applicable building codes, OSHA, and NFPA. A family of codes
including the International Building Code, the International Mechanical Code, and
the International Fire Code provide guidance for determining the required ventilation
rates for many different building types. However, for the most part, these codes do
not address ventilation requirements for industrial process plants. - ASHRAE 62-
2007 (latest version) is an authoritative guide on ventilation rates and is the basis for
much of the code requirements.
2. For plants handling flammable fluids, OSHA, NFPA, and the local building codes
publish required minimum ventilation standards for the purpose of fire prevention
(see Table 2 for typical requirements).
3. The local authorities for the project location should be contacted to determine the
latest local adopted code and to obtain a copy of the code if necessary.
OSHA has ventilation requirements covering flammable and combustible liquids
(1910.106), welding (1910.251), spray booths (1910.107(a)), laboratories
(1910.1450), and miscellaneous operations such as spray booths, spray rooms,
grinding wheels, and open surface tanks (1910.94).
4. Various NFPA standards are often referenced as mandatory requirements in the
local building codes. The applicable codes should be searched for the required
ventilation rate for the particular type of building under consideration.
5. Laboratory fume hood discharge stacks should be in accordance with ANSI Z9.5,
which generally requires the stack height to be 10 ft above the roof and the stack
velocity to be 3000 fpm.
Technical Standard
N-S-MC 16-137-03
Ventilation Design Guidelines
Date: 10/11 SHEET 6 OF 6

Table 2
Typical Ventilation Requirements for Flammable and Combustible Liquids
Facilities

OSHA
1) 1 cfm/sq ft for “processing plants” and “industrial plants” handling flammable liquids
(1910.106(e)(3)(v)(a) and 1910.106(h)(3)(iii)(a)). This does not apply to “chemical
plants”, where flammable or combustible liquids are produced by, or used in,
chemical reactions.
2) 6 air changes per hour required for “inside storage rooms” less than 500 sq ft in floor
area (1910.106(d)(4)(iv). No ventilation requirement is stated for flammable or
combustible liquids stored in warehouses.

▓ NFPA 30 - 2008
▓ 1) 1 cfm/sq ft ventilation rate (minimum 150 cfm) is required
▓ a. for liquid storage areas where dispensing occurs. Ventilation shall be either
a gravity or a continuous mechanical exhaust system. Note that mechanical
systems shall be provided if Class I liquids are dispensed within the room
(Section 18.5 and Section 18.5.5)
▓ b. as a minimum for storage tank buildings which store Class I liquids or Class
II or Class IIIA liquids at temperatures above their flash points. The
ventilation rates for these areas shall be sufficient to maintain the vapor
concentration within the enclosure at or below 25 percent of the lower
flammable limit. (Section 24.10 and Section 24.10.2)
▓ c. as a minimum for vaults that contain tanks storing Class I liquids. (Section
25.10.1)
In some cases, less than 1 cfm/sq ft is permissible if it can be demonstrated that
the vapor concentration will not exceed 25% of the LFL.
▓ 2) NFPA 30 (2008, Section A.3.3.57) allows local exhaust to satisfy up to 75% of the
general ventilation requirement.

▓ NFPA 35 - 2005
▓ 1) Enclosed buildings in which Class I liquids are processed or handled in open
containers and equipment shall be continuously ventilated at a rate of not less than
1 cfm / square foot of solid floor area during operation of any equipment. (5.4.1)
▓ 2) Enclosed buildings in which Class I liquids are processed or handled in closed
containers and equipment shall be equipped with point-of-use and point-of-emission
local exhaust ventilation systems designed to prevent accumulation of flammable
vapors during the operation of the equipment. (5-4.2).
Technical Standard
N-S-MC 16-137-03
Ventilation Design Guidelines
Date: 10/11 SHEET 7 OF 6

International Fire Code – 2000

▓ Refer to ICC IFC 2000 chapter 34 – Flammable and Combustible Liquids:
Section 3404.2 for tank storage
Section 3404.3 for container and portable tank storage
Section 3405.3.7.5 for dispensing, use, mixing and handling in open systems
Section 3405.3.7.6 for dispensing, use, mixing and handling in closed systems
designed to be opened as part of a normal operation