(364f) Dynamic Risk-Based Operability and Control Strategies for Smart and Sustainable Process Operations

Process Safety Management (PSM) proactively employs safety metrics to ensure the safeness, reliability, and efficiency of chemical process systems, even under uncertain conditions. Evaluating the safety impact of design and operational variables in the early design stages has the potential to proactively circumvent abnormal conditions associated with these processes [1,2]. In this work, the integration of process design, operations, and risk optimization is aimed to be achieved by leveraging operability analysis. Process operability has emerged as a practical methodological approach to systematically identify the optimally feasible operating window with holistic analyses of operational uncertainties, disturbances, and constraint violations [3-5]. Key research questions remain on: (i) the integration of safety metrics into traditional operability concepts and (ii) the development of a generalizable framework by employing operability analysis to enhance overall process safety performance. The integrated approach is demonstrated via two safety-critical process case studies, namely: (i) an exothermic CSTR to produce gasoline additive based on a major process safety accident at T2 Laboratories Inc. [7] and (ii) a Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzer (PEMWE) to produce high-purity hydrogen gas. In the case of PEMWE, electrolyzer temperature is the key safety-critical variable. Elevated operating temperatures raise hydrogen safety concerns within the cell and storage systems and shorten the durability of the PEMWE by accelerating membrane and catalyst degradation [8,9]. As the primary outcome, this work will guide the chemical process design and operating strategies to enhance the overall process safety performance by quantifying the achievability of a safe and feasible region for process operations.

Research Interests:

My research interests are at the intersection of process system engineering (PSE) and process safety management (PSM), with a focus on modeling and simulation of safety-critical chemical/energy systems. I am particularly interested in improving the efficiency, operability, and safety of these systems through control and optimization techniques. I am also interested in exploring sustainability metrics to promote more holistic designs and operations to ensure that processes are not only safe and efficient but also environmentally friendly.

References

1. Pozo Arcos, B., Bakker, C., Flipsen, B. & Balkenende, R. Practices of fault diagnosis in household appliances: Insights for design. Journal of Cleaner Production 265, 121812 (2020).
2. Park, S., Xu, S., Rogers, W., Pasman, H., & El-Halwagi, M. M. (2020). Incorporating inherent safety during the conceptual process design stage: A literature review. Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 63, 104040.
3. Gazzaneo, V., Carrasco, J. C., Vinson, D. R. & Lima, F. V. Process Operability Algorithms: Past, Present, and Future Developments. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research 59, 2457–2470 (2020).
4. Alves, S. Dinh, J. R. Kitchin, V. Gazzaneo, J. C. Carrasco, and F. V. Lima, ‘Opyrability: A Python package for process operability analysis’, Journal of Open Source Software, vol. 9, no. 94, p. 5966, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.05966, 2024.
5. Dinh, S. & Lima, F. V. Dynamic Operability Analysis for Process Design and Control of Modular Natural Gas Utilization Systems. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 62, 2052–2066 (2023).
6. Bao, H., Khan, F., Iqbal, T. & Chang, Y. Risk‐based fault diagnosis and safety management for process systems. Process Safety Progress 30, 6–17 (2011).
7. Ali, M., Cai, X., Khan, F. I., Pistikopoulos, E. N. & Tian, Y. Dynamic risk-based process design and operational optimization via multi-parametric programming. Digital Chemical Engineering 7, 100096 (2023).