Who do I need to talk to about figuring out what areas of a new build is classified or not

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jtred

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Journeyman Electrician, controls technician
I'm an electrician-control technician for a company that is about to buy a machine for filling hand sanitizer consisting of about 70% IPA. It is going to be stuck into a room that is about 10'x 20'. The storage tank is going to be around 100 gallons. I'm guessing that is is going to create an classified area, but I am not getting a clear answer on that from the plant engineer. Who does he need to talk to help make this determination?

Edit: Number of gallons changed.
 
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They need to provide you area classification drawings. The job of classifing an area is not something the typical electrician or plant engineer is qualified to do. 500.4(A) requires documentation of the classified areas.
 
As noted by Don, proper documentation is required and it is the responsibility of the facility's owner/operator to have it. If there is no one within the company qualified to make the determination, an outside consultant should be contacted, My personal preference is the facility's insurer if a qualified engineering firm isn't available.
 
Thank you all for the responses. I am aware of the requirements of 500.4(A) and have been trying to preach that is something that can't be overlooked as it is required. Last week I spoke to the engineer and he had mentioned he was going to talk to the insurance company Some time today. I will talk to him again about looking for a qualified engineering firm.
 
NEC just uses the data. There are generic Codes like NFPA 499 but you are better off using Codes specific to the application if they exist because quite often they have much less strict requirements. For instance the national fuel gas code, the burner codes, the fuel storage codes. This is typically a process engineer function because it gets into knowledge of chemical and material properties. Just note that if they are using the generic one for everything, they did it wrong and they will end up blowing up the budget,
 
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