Process safety education

A second important need in the curriculum is for a far greater emphasis on design and control for process safety, waste minimization, and minimal adverse enviroiunental impact. These themes need to be woven into the curriculum wherever possible. The AIChE Center for Chemical Process Safety is attempting to provide curricular material in this area, but a larger effort than this project is needed. Several large chemical companies have significant expertise in this area. Closer interaction between academic researchers and educators and industry is required to disseminate this expertise. 

Joseph F. Louvar retired as director of BASF s Chemical Engineering Department to become a professor at Wayne State University, specializing in chemical process safety, risk assessment, and the design of experiments. He has authored many publications on process safety and chairs the Undergraduate Education Committee of the CCPS. 

Since the first edition was published, many universities have developed courses or course content in chemical process safety. This new emphasis on process safety is the result of the positive influences from industry and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). Based on faculty feedback, this textbook is an excellent application of the fundamental topics that are taught in the first three years of the undergraduate education. 

We also continue to acknowledge and thank all the members of the Undergraduate Education Committee of the Center for Chemical Process Safety and the Safety and Loss Prevention Committee of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. We are honored to be members of both committees. The members of these committees are the experts in safety their enthusiasm and knowledge have been truly educational and a key inspiration to the development of this text. 

FIG. 23-3 The relationship between the various flammability properties. (D. A. Cro-wl and J. F. Louvar, Chemical Process Safety Fundamentals with Applications, 2d ed, 2002. Adapted by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, N.J.)... 

Our process safety people, notably Dr. Rick Kwasny and Messrs. Joe Buckley, Bob Giusto, Howard Camp, and Jay Marino, proved wise and dedicated professionals who thoroughly educated us in calorimetry, the tests to run, and the practices to adopt to ensure we met the requirements for safe operation. 

Crowl, Daniel A. and Joseph F. Louvar, Chemical Process Safety Fundamentals with Applications, ISBN 0-13-129701-5, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1990. This is the first widely used United States college textbook on Loss Prevention. The textbook has been selling well and is the basis for an AIChE Continuing Education Course. The price is about 85. 

Dr, Ronald J. Willey of Northeastern University in Boston prepared an excellent 35miT slide training package entitled Seminar on Tank Failures. Professor Willey developed this instructional lecture material under the direction and guidance of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Undergraduate Education Committee of the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS). ... 

General References Crowl and Louvar, Chemical Process Safety Fundamentals with Applications, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1990, pp. 121-155. Hanna and Drivas, Guidelines for Use of Vapor Cloud Dispersion Models, AIChE, New York, 1987. Hanna and Strimaitis, Workbook of Test Cases for Vapor Cloud Source Dispersion Models, AIChE, New York, 1989. Lees, Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, Butterworths, London, 1986, pp. 428-463. Seinfeld, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics of Air Pollution, Chaps. 12, 13, 14, Wiley, New York, 1986. Turner, Workbook of Atmospheric Dispersion Estimates, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Cincinnati, 1970. 

A process safety program must be relevant to the company and its operations. The program must also be relevant to employees personal safety and success. The link between safety actions and safety outcomes is most obvious in operations that directly handle highly hazardous materials. Unfortunately, that nexus may not be as obvious in the systems that support and are otherwise indirectly associated with hazardous materials. Appropriately developed, implemented, and communicated process safety metrics can help educate personnel on the importance of different aspects of the process safety system. 

Advertising successes of the process safety improvement effort demonstrates that improvement is possible. Well-crafted stories also explain the benefits that accrue to everyone in the organization. Of particular interest are stories where a process safety weakness was observed, possibly during a process safety audit, and an improvement effort corrected the identified weakness before it could manifest into an accident. Metrics can validate such improvements. Another example is improved reliability from timely maintenance of safety devices as demonstrated by metrics that educate personnel not only about the hazards, but also about the importance of reliable safety systems in managing those hazards. 

Establish safety education and training for all employees and establish feedback channels to determine whether it is effective along with processes for continual improvement. The education should include reminders of past accidents and causes and input from lessons learned and trouble reports. Assessment of effectiveness may include information obtained from knowledge assessments during audits. 

In many cases, these types of policy changes are implemented by people situated very high in the organization who typically have many objectives to consider. In some cases, these decision makers may not be familiar with process safety and its implications for the business. In this case, it may be necessary to educate these high-level executives on what process safety is and how it may affect the business metrics that they may be more familiar with such as profitability and corporate image. One tool for this information sharing is a video and associated reference material that is being produced by CCPS entitled, Executive Process Safety Seminar. ... 

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