C.J. Kelly (Syracuse University)
J.V. Birtwistle (Risk Reliability and Safety Engineering LLC.)

This product is based on an explosion at Concept Sciences, Inc., which occurred in 1999 and was subsequently investigated by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB). This package will help students and engineers to:

• Understand the contributing causes of accidents,

• Design plants with the appropriate features to prevent accidents,

• Understand the important concepts relevant to managing a plant to prevent accidents, and

• Introduce the concept of a hazard and operability study.

A well-known principle relevant to safety is that we are not discovering new ways to have accidents; we are just repeating mistakes of the past. The emphasis of this product is to learn from history or be doomed to repeat it! This introduction to safety features a PowerPoint lecture describing the explosion and an introducing the concept of a hazard and operability study. The presentation is based on the CSB's Case Study of the incident. Supporting material included in this product is the CSB’s Case Study, several newspaper articles concerning the explosion, and a brief team exercise on HAZOP analysis.

Log in for downloads of this product.

[ View Comments ][ Add Comment ]

Joe Louvar and Durai Dakshinamoorthy (Wayne State University)

This product emphasizes learning from history or being doomed to repeat it. It includes three sections:

• Mini-Case Histories
• Process Safety Beacon
• Safety Concepts

as described below:

Mini-Case Histories: There are eight PowerPoint presentations, with notes, that cover the accidents at Bhopal, Monsanto, Phillips, Flixborough, Morton, Tosco, Hickson, and Sonat. The root causes of each accident are included, such as, poor designs, lack of training, and poor management. The information summarized in these case histories was taken from SACHE products, and reports by the Chemical Safety Board.

Process Safety Beacon: The Center for Chemical Process Safety is publishing monthly, one-page case histories or lessons learned. They are available on the Internet via CCPS Beacon. A few of the Beacons are included in this product to remind readers that these lessons are available.

Safety Concepts: This product includes six PowerPoint presentations: Relief Valves; Prevent Runaway Reactions; Manage Design, Construction, and Operations; BLEVEs; Explosions; and Prevent Explosions. The concepts covered are those that are especially relevant to chemical plant accidents.

The Mini-Case Histories and Safety Concepts were developed in a PowerPoint format to give users the opportunity to add slides or lessons as desired.

Log in for downloads of this product.

[ View Comments ][ Add Comment ]

Eric N. Parvin and Arthur M. Sterling (Louisiana State University)

The goal of this module is to inform and educate inexperienced engineers about process safety management in general, and about safety valve sizing and the application of engineering principles to safe process design in particular. We also hope to encourage logical thinking patterns in an overview of process design for inherently safer process systems. The target audience will normally be college engineering students, but may also be entry-level engineers (0-3 years) who have not yet been exposed to this subject matter, or as a refresher for more experienced engineers. Contained within this package are two software files (one MS PowerPoint presentation and one MS Excel file). The PowerPoint presentation is intended for educational purposes to gain knowledge and a general understanding of Process Safety Management. It is intended to take about one hour to present the material, but can be shortened (see "instruction" slide for further details). The Excel file contains several practical exercises for the students to work in a recitation-type environment, preferably in groups of two or three students. The Excel file contains the problems, solutions, and instructions to prepare the handouts for the class. The recitation is expected to take at least one and a half hours.

Log in for downloads of this product.

[ View Comments ][ Add Comment ]

S. Horsch (Wayne State University)
M. Horsch (University of Michigan)
J. Louvar (Wayne State University)

SACHE's objectives are to:

• assist professors to add safety, health, and environmental (SHE) concepts to the core courses of all chemical engineering departments
• assist professionals to appreciate the importance of SHE concepts in university and company environments
• help companies to improve their safety and environmental performance

The genesis of this product was at a Faculty Workshop where a group professors made the following remark: 'The best way for professors to add SHE concepts to their courses is to have these materials in their textbooks.' This product, consequently, was developed to help authors to add safety, health, and environmental concepts to their textbooks. The subjects addressed include:

• Kinetics
• Thermodynamics
• Stoichiometry
• Mass Transport
• Heat Transport
• Design

This product has three major sections:

• Text with Examples to embed into the chapters of textbooks
• Problems and Solutions for the end of the chapters
• SHE related Figures that can be added anywhere within textbooks and/or for enhancing lectures

The materials were primarily adapted from existing SACHE products.

Student access: Problem statements are available to students logged into the site (in Problem_statements.pdf).

Log in for downloads of this product.

[ View Comments ][ Add Comment ]