NEW ORLEANS – The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) will hold its 2014 Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process Safety at the Hilton New Orleans – Riverside from March 30 to April 3. The meeting, consisting of 150 sessions across eight topical conferences and special program tracks, explores topics essential to practicing engineers, with a focus on energy and safety developments. More than 2,400 practitioners from 50 countries are expected to participate.
This year marks the tenth annual Global Congress on Process Safety, the world’s largest gathering of process safety professionals. Organized by AIChE’s Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) and Safety and Health Division, the Global Congress on Process Safety invites participants to join an ongoing dialogue devoted to exploring effective ways to avoid industrial accidents, manage risk, ensure the safety of employees and the environment, and strengthen process-safety-management (PSM) programs.
To help mark the tenth anniversary of the congress, organizers will survey the past decade of process safety advancements with Process Safety Spotlight sessions on Wednesday, April 2. The special sessions will feature a retrospective of “best papers” from past congresses, including discussions of real-world case studies, technical developments, and strategies used in the process safety field. The presentations include:
- “Overview of Inherently Safer Technology,” presented by Dennis C. Hendershot, AIChE’s Center for Chemical Process Safety
- “More Lessons ‘Re-Learned’ from Corrosion Under Insulation,” presented by Kenan Stevick, director of process safety at The Dow Chemical Company
- “Vinyl Chloride Monomer Explosion,” presented by Lisa Long, director, Office of Engineering Safety at the U.S. Department of Labor – Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
- “Combustible Dust Explosion Venting,” presented by Erdem A. Ural, president, Loss Prevention Science and Technologies, Inc.
- “Emergency Response Leadership: Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire,” presented by Peter N. Lodal, technical fellow at Eastman Chemical Company
- “Safety Culture in the CCPS Risk-Based Process Safety Model,” presented by Walter L. Frank, president, Frank Risk Solutions, Inc.
Other programs connected with the Global Congress on Process Safety include a panel discussion devoted to the safety considerations and challenges involved in the safe extraction and processing of shale gas and shale oil reserves, and a Process Safety Management Mentoring (PSM2) Forum, which is dedicated to sharing process safety management information with young engineers entering the oil, gas, chemicals, and allied fields.
For more information about the conference or related workshops and meetings, please go to: http://www.aiche.org/spring.
Editor’s Note:
Journalists interested in covering the conference should contact Danielle Gross at dgross@thebravogroup.com
AIChE is a professional society of more than 45,000 chemical engineers in 100 countries. Its members work in corporations, universities and government using their knowledge of chemical processes to develop safe and useful products for the benefit of society. Through its varied programs, AIChE continues to be a focal point for information exchange on the frontiers of chemical engineering research in such areas as energy, sustainability, biological and environmental engineering, nanotechnology and chemical plant safety and security. More information about AIChE is available at www.aiche.org.