Contents
A Process Safety Management (PSM) Overview
Sponsor: Bruce K. Vaughen (Cabot Corporation)
The objective of this product is to provide an overview of the basic elements of a Process Safety Management (PSM) system. An effective PSM system ensures the safety, health, and welfare of people, the community and the environment by understanding and controlling process hazards. The product defines PSM, Operational Discipline (OD) and Risk, and it describes an approach to process safety risk reduction as well as discussing basic concepts describing the PSM elements that comprise an effective system. This product includes:
- A two-part PowerPoint presentation
- Lecture notes
- Handouts
and can be used by faculty, industrial trainers, and students. Details or specific examples can be added to the PSM elements in the presentation.
Consequence Modeling Source Models I: Liquids & Gases
Sponsor: Jan Wagner (Oklahoma State University)
This module was developed to help introduce issues of safety and loss prevention in undergraduate engineering courses. Each of the five major sections can be used independently, depending on the student's backgrounds.
- Section 1 is an introduction to the role of source models in the risk assessment process.
- Section 2 introduces the basic information required to select or develop an appropriate source model for a given release scenario.
- The fundamental concepts of the 1st Law of Thermodynamics, the mechanical energy balance, and friction losses in pipes and fittings are reviewed briefly in Section 3.
- Section 4 deals with flow of liquids in pipes and orifices. The example problems are intended to introduce loss prevention issues, and they can be used in any fluid mechanics class.
- Section 5 presents the flow of ideal gas in orifices and pipes. This material may be appropriate in fluid mechanics or thermodynamics classes. The derivations of equations for compressible flow are intended to show the relationships between physical phenomena and the mathematical model; the fundamental concepts apply to ideal and real gases.
The module resources include text, accompanying PowerPoint presentations, student homework problems, and an instructor's solution manual.
Seveso Accidental Release Case History
Sponsor: Ronald J. Willey (Northeastern University)
This presentation describes a widely discussed case history that illustrates how minor engineering errors can cause significant problems; problems that should not be repeated. The accident was in Seveso, Italy in 1976. It was a small release of a dioxin that caused many serious injuries.
The package can be used in an undergraduate classroom or an industrial training session. The package can be modified to fit different contexts including: reaction engineering (runaway reactions), heat transfer (heat transport from the reactor walls to the liquid), mass transfer (the resultant dispersion of material from a release), and reaction stoichiometry. The entire module can be presented in about 50 minutes.
The Seveso case history is an especially good teaching module, showing how a minor problem and a minor release can cause very serious injuries. The root cause of this release included a poor engineering design, operator negligence, and poor supervision. The intent of this teaching module is to motivate engineers and supervisors to pay attention to the details.
This product includes five excellent problems and solutions that illustrate the lessons to be learned from this case history. The problems can be used in the following courses: a) Stoichiometry, b) Thermodynamics, c) Kinetics, d) Heat Transfer, and e) Ethics. Or they can be used in industrial training sessions in the areas of process design and engineering management.
Conservation of Life: Application of Process Safety Management
Sponsor: J. Klein (DuPont)
This SACHE product introduces “conservation of life” (COL) as a fundamental principle of chemical engineering design and practice, equivalent in importance to conservation of energy and mass. This presentation provides a good introduction to application of process safety and provides an overall structure for consideration of process safety by students.
COL principles that are discussed include:
- Assess material/process hazards
- Evaluate hazardous events
- Manage process risks
- Consider real-world operations
- Ensure product sustainability.
Most of the presentation is spent on the first three principles, which are most important to chemical engineering design and education, but all principles are introduced. Important factors for assessment of toxicity, flammability, reactivity, and dust hazards are provided. Use of PHAs, layers of protection, inherently safer methodologies, and human factors for managing process risk are highlighted. The “Swiss Cheese Model” is also introduced to consider how layers of protection can fail, potentially leading to catastrophic incidents such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.
This product can be used in the university (introductory engineering, design, or kinetics courses) or for the introduction of process safety for new industrial employees. COL can be used by universities as a concept and unifying theme for increasing awareness, application, and integration of process and product safety throughout the chemical engineering curriculum and for meeting the revised ABET accreditation criteria.
Solutions to Student Problem Set Volume 1
Sponsors: J. R. Welker and C. Springer (University of Arkansas)
"Safety, Health, and Loss Prevention in Chemical Processes - Problems for Undergraduate Engineering Curricula" Volume 1 was originally published by CCPS in 1990. Copies were given to universities and sold to industry. This was a very popular and valued product that is currently out of print. J. Wagner (Oklahoma State University) recently put this product in electronic format for distribution here. The problems are available via the Links menu on this site and to students logged into the site.
The 90 problems involve issues of safety, health, and loss prevention and provide students and new engineers with important insights to industrial processes. This material can also be used as a reference for industrial courses for new engineering employees. These safety problems and solutions further demonstrate that safety and health issues are handled with basic engineering principles and logic. Finally, through the use of this material, we hope to instill in students and engineers an increased recognition of the importance of chemical process safety and the recognition that they have the professional and ethical responsibility to provide safe chemical plants, processes and products.
The problems were designed to use in existing engineering courses, such as: stoichiometry, material balance, mass transfer, heat transfer, thermodynamics, process control, and design courses. The authors believe that it is important that students work on these problems while attending there undergraduate courses and throughout their education. This process should develop a safety culture within engineers that will help them throughout their careers.
Solutions to Student Problem Set Volume 2
Sponsors:
R. Willey (Northeastern University)
D. Crowl (Michigan Tech University)
R. Welker (University of Arkansas)
R. Darby (Texas A&M University)
"Safety, Health, and Loss Prevention in Chemical Processes - Volume 2" was originally published by CCPS in 2002 and distributed to SACHE University Members. This was a very popular and valued product that is now out of print. R. Willey recently put this volume in electronic form for distribution here.
Like the Volume 1 problems, the 218 problems teach safety, health, and loss prevention. This solution set represents problems and solutions produced by SACHE in the period 1990 to 2000.
The problems were designed for use in existing engineering courses, such as: Stoichiometry, Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Kinetics, Heat Transfer, Process Dynamics and Control, Computer Solutions, and Mass Transfer. The authors believe that including these problems in a required undergraduate course helps engineering students develop a safety culture and mind set that will benefit them throughout their careers.
Student AIChE 2002 Design Problem Solution
Sponsors:
S. Horsch and J. Louvar (Wayne State University)
J. Wehman (BASF Corporation, retired)
This product includes a solution to the 2002 AIChE Design Problem that was developed by a student (S. Horsch) with significant assistance from very knowledgeable design professionals; these are the professionals who developed this design problem, and they have worked on this design in an industrial environment.
This product includes concepts, calculations, and drawings that can be used in future AIChE design solutions, for example:
- Relief valve calculations for gases, liquids, and two phase flows;
- Safety review including hazards and resulting safety measures to prevent accidents and inherent safety concepts and features;
- The process flow diagram (PFD) and process and instrument diagram (P&ID); and
- MathCad programs for making the design calculations.
All of the MathCad programs and Visio drawings can be copied for using in future design problem solutions. Additionally, the safety review and inherent safety discussions will be an excellent aid in the development of safety and inherent design concepts for all future AIChE design problems. The AIChE Student Chapters Committee that administers the annual AIChE Design competition approved posting of this example problem.