AIChE’s Center for Chemical Process Safety and Trinseo Partner on Process Safety Workshops for Engineering Students in China

Collaboration boosts international expansion of AIChE’s Undergraduate Process Safety Learning Initiative

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and its subsidiary the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) have partnered with Trinseo (NYSE: TSE), a global materials solutions provider, to host process safety workshops for undergraduate chemical engineering students in China. The workshops will be the first sessions in the AIChE/CCPS Undergraduate Process Safety Learning Initiative to be held outside the U.S. The partnership was announced during the 6th CCPS China Conference on Process Safety, held September 25–27, 2018, in Qingdao, China.

Chemical engineering students from several universities in China will be invited to participate in “Student Workshops on Risk-Based Process Safety,” which will be held in 2019 at Trinseo’s manufacturing site at Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province, China. The curriculum will combine process safety theory and real-world case studies taught by process safety experts from CCPS and industry. The China workshops will be presented by Byron Sun, a safety expert and CCPS staff consultant with extensive safety experience acquired at China Petrochemical Company (now SINOPEC) and DuPont China.

To support the program’s expansion in China, Trinseo will donate $50,000 to AIChE’s Doing a World of Good campaign, and will provide in-kind support from Trinseo employees in China. In addition to hosting the student workshops in China, Trinseo will also support the development of Chinese-language marketing materials to promote CCPS’s Safety and Chemical Engineering Education (SAChE) online learning modules, as well as additional translation of the safety curriculum into Chinese. Trinseo has been a supporter of AIChE’s Undergraduate Process Safety Learning Initiative and Doing a World of Good campaign since 2016.

Shakeel Kadri, Executive Director of CCPS, explained the critical importance of the undergraduate workshops, noting that “employers tell CCPS that they need engineers who are better trained in process safety when they enter the workforce.” However, Kadri added, chemical engineering schools around the world have not yet developed a standard process safety curriculum to fulfill that need. “Through CCPS’s collaborations with organizations such as Trinseo, the Undergraduate Process Safety Learning Initiative is helping to ensure that every chemical engineering graduate acquires a basic knowledge and appreciation of process safety principles.”

Chris Pappas, President and CEO of Trinseo, said “Trinseo is proud to be part of this effort to educate future generations of chemical engineers, and in particular to help bring the successful Undergraduate Process Safety Learning Initiative to China for the first time.” He added that Trinseo’s employees in China are highly committed to process safety and training, and are eager to pass along their knowledge to the next generation of chemical engineers. “This partnership with CCPS and AIChE is in line with the Trinseo company’s values, our commitment to Responsible Care®, and our dedication to work safely in everything we do,” Pappas concluded.