(239g) Successful Process Safety Instruction in Two Capstone Design Courses at a Hispanic-Serving Institution

The senior design courses of our chemical engineering curriculum serve as a transition for students completing their undergraduate studies and preparing to enter the engineering workforce. Therefore, the capstone courses are a logical place for process safety instruction, since this topic fits well with the course emphasis on process design and the senior capstone project experience. The instructor draws on his 25 years of industrial experience for teaching and mentoring students on various process safety topics, in order to satisfy the ABET curricular requirement for process hazards and process safety instruction. The topics presented in several lectures in both the first and second semesters of the capstone design course sequence include chemical hazards, process safety analysis, industry process safety management systems mandated by OHSA regulations, and established safety tools such as the HAZOPs analysis. This talk will present the instructors’ comprehensive approach to process safety instruction, and the student level of learning achieved in this topic area.

Many of our graduating seniors find employment in one of the refineries and chemical plants that are prevalent in the region near our university. Nearly half of our students come from the local area where refinery and process chemical plants are numerous, while a majority of the remaining students come from a region of our state where there are virtually no refinery or process chemical facilities. One of the challenges we face in this task is adapting the instruction to this diverse student body, half of whom have been exposed to process safety issues from internships or talking with friends or relatives in the industry, and half whose exposure to safety has been nothing more than the high school or college chemistry lab class. The various facets of the process safety instruction which we have developed and incorporated into our senior design course sequence is intended to provide our students with a well-rounded overview of safety topics to prepare them for employment in the process operating environment. First off, a distinction is made between personal safety and process safety, realizing that chemical engineers will be dealing with both of these when working in a process environment. Secondly, chemical and refinery accidents investigated by the Chemical Safety Board are presented and discussed in order to impress upon the students the very serious nature of process safety and process hazards in their future work environment. Third, an overview of OSHA process safety management (PSMs) systems that refineries and chemical manufacturers are required to develop and implement is explained. Finally, tools used in PSMs, such as HAZOPs analysis and PHAs, are discussed and utilized in instruction. The students respond well and usually score high on related assignments, such as written technical memos and quizzes, on these various safety elements. From this, we judge that the process safety instruction is effective. Additionally, a complementary indication of success to date of our multi-faceted approach is the recognition of this safety instruction as a strength of our program by the ABET reviewer in a recent ABET site visit.