(551d) Enhancing Process Safety Education through Hands-on Laboratory Activities

Promoting an understanding of process safety is essential in chemical engineering education and is valued in the industry. Our approach over the past three years has been to integrate practical process safety methods into our undergraduate and graduate programs with the aim of improving safety culture across the department. In our presentation, we will detail the use of tools such as safety incident reporting and 'safety moments' as part of our strategy for continuous improvement in laboratory safety. We will also discuss the role of an undergraduate safety officer in influencing student behavior and ensuring the transfer of safety knowledge from year to year. A key addition to our curriculum has been the development of hands-on process safety experiments in the Chemical Engineering Unit Operations lab. For example, we created an economical Hartmann Tube to study the explosion risks of dust. Despite the high cost of commercial Hartmann tubes, we produced a functional alternative for less than $1,000, using 3D printing and readily available monitoring equipment. The experiment includes specific protocols that enable students to study how differences in dust type, particle size and moisture content affect combustion risks. In conclusion, we strongly believe in the potential of minor adjustments in safety pedagogy to impact both laboratory behavior and broader safety culture.