(239c) Chemical Process Safety: A 3-Credit Course at the University of Florida

Our department has a three-credit core course on chemical process safety. It has evolved from a one-credit course associated with our unit operations laboratory to a required two-credit course (Spring 2010), Safety and Experimental Evaluation. After the inclusion of safety into the ABET Student Outcomes, three major changes were made, 1) The course name was changed to Chemical Process Safety to better describe the course content, 2) the number of credits were increased from two to three, and 3) we made it a core course, which requires a minimum grade of C for passing. Each of us has served as lead instructor for the course, and, while each of us has our own style and emphasis, the common features are:

1. We use Crowl and Louvar (Chemical Process Safety: Fundamentals with Applications) as our textbook. Students are free to use the third or fourth editions, but not earlier editions.
2. We make ample use of the resources provided by the Chemical Safety Board (CSB). This is done by showing CSB videos and discussing CSB investigations in class.
3. The Chemical Reactivity Worksheet program developed by NOAA is introduced, and assignments are included where students use the program to identify incompatible chemicals.
4. SAChE certification is motivated by awarding up to a letter grade of extra credit (e.g., 5+ certifications = 1 letter grade). As the average grade for the class before extra credit is given is around a B, this means that most students will receive an A in the class. We require students to take the Chemical Reactivity Hazards and Process Safety Ethics – A Brief Introduction courses, while other certifications for extra credit may be selected among the level 2 and 3 courses.
5. We use homework and exams to motivate students, and often design exam questions around recent accidents investigated by the CSB.

Features included by some instructors include:

1. Guest speakers, including a speaker from OSHA who has prior experience working with the Chemical Safety Board, an environmental health and safety expert from Bacardi, and a retired vice president from BP. Their presentations help to emphasize the real-world challenges of managing safety.
2. Introduction to the NOAA programs (ALOHA, MARPLOT, CAMEO).
3. Assignment of a written essay of at least 400 words, with the prompt “Describe the ethical and professional responsibilities of Chemical Engineers, and the impact of engineering solutions in environmental or societal contexts.”

This course is taught after students have taken material and energy balances, thermodynamics, and transport phenomena. Chemical process safety is a mid-level capstone course as students see how the material they have learned to date can be used to recognize and mitigate safety hazards in industry. Our approach to teaching safety is both traditional and effective.

Key Words Education, Process Safety Competency, Process Safety Culture