Coal dust emission from open coal storage parks and handling plants can represent a significant part of the overall atmospheric emission contribution in different industrial activities, such as power stations or coke production plants. The emissions are strictly connected to technical characteristics of the handling system, chemico-physical properties of coal and environmental conditions. In this paper, we present a full-scale operational solution to the problem of limiting coal dust emissions during transportation from the harbor site to the final utilization plant. To this end, a simple mathematical framework is developed in order to evaluate explosion risk inside the enclosure and set-Up proper technical and managerial layers of protection suitable to minimize the risk. (C) 2013 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.