Course content

The course deals with operation and safety and in chemical and biological processes in industry. Process safety involves a good understanding of the characteristics of different process units, how the units are designed and built, and how the units are combined. Operational features are very important. The students must analyze real accidents and undesired events, and are introduced to tools for hazard and risk assessment and analysis as well as specific topics (leak rates, leak dispersion, chemical reactivity hazards, flammability and explosions, toxicology and industrial hygiene).

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

• The candidate should have knowledge about important safety challenges linked to the design, building and operation of industrial plants and laboratory activities
• The candidate should have knowledge about potential dangers linked to accidents or emissions from chemical or biological process plants
• The candidate should have knowledge about methods for the analysis of safety and accidents
• The candidate should have knowledge about safety metrics, basic toxicology, principles of industrial hygiene, loss of containment and leak rates, methods for describing gas dispersion in the environment, flammability and explosions, chemical reactivity hazards

Skills

• The candidate can through the analysis of industrial accidents or undesired events identify the cause of the events and propose improvements in design or operation of a process or process unit
• The candidate can analyse existing plants and describe critical parameters linked with good and safe operation of the plant
• The candidate should be able to apply central tools for the analysis of safety and accidents in the process industry
• The candidate is able to use key methods to describe important features relevant to flammability, leak rates and leak dispersion, chemical reactivity, toxicology and risk assessment

General competence

• The candidate can search for and retrieve information about processes and equipment and link this information to fundamental theory in the field
• The candidate is familiar with important principles for safe operation of process plants
• The candidate has a good knowledge about different kinds of risks linked to industrial process plants
• The candidate can communicate knowledge about safe design and operation of process plants

• ndidate can communicate knowledge about safe design and operation of process plan

Learning methods and activities

The course will be taught using lectures and presentations combined with compulsory exercises individually and in groups. The exercises include analysis of real accidents and undesired events (case-studies) linked to fundamental theory about safety and technical issues.

Compulsory assignments

• Excersises

Specific conditions

Recommended previous knowledge

Bachelor-degree in Chemical Engineering or a similar background

Required previous knowledge

No particular requirements. Limited to 40 students, priority to students in MSCHEMBI followed by students in MTKJ.

Course materials

Textbook: D.A. Crowl, J.F Louvar: Chemical Process Safety - Fundamentals with Applications. 4th edition, Pearson 2019.

Handouts as distributed.