Process Safety
Engineering process safety at a bioethanol and ethyl acetate plant in Sarnia, Ontario: incidents and their lessons, exposure and ventilation, release and dispersion models, fires, explosions and dust, inerting and static control, relief scenarios and sizing, HAZOP, LOPA and risk assessment, ending with a hazard review and relief design for a tank farm.
CHE-380 Year 3 3 credits 12 lessons · 4 h 22 min ▶ Video lessons coming soon
Offered by HSM University · Chemical Engineering
This is the Canadian version of this course. See the American version.
What you'll learn
- Distinguish process safety from personal safety and explain the lessons of major incidents such as Flixborough, Bhopal, Texas City, Lac-Mégantic and West.
- Describe routes of exposure and dose-response, apply occupational exposure limits, calculate time-weighted averages and mixture indices, and size dilution ventilation.
- Estimate release rates for liquid, choked gas, flashing and evaporating pool releases with standard source models.
- Estimate downwind concentrations with Gaussian plume and puff models, choose stability classes and apply flammable and toxic endpoints for emergency planning.
- Use flammability limits, Le Chatelier's rule, flash point, limiting oxygen concentration and minimum ignition energy to judge whether a mixture can burn.
- Explain deflagrations, detonations, BLEVEs and dust explosions and estimate overpressure and thermal radiation for facility siting.
- Design inerting and purging, control static electricity by bonding and grounding, and apply electrical area classification.
- Identify credible overpressure scenarios, select relief devices and disposal systems, and apply code limits on accumulation.
- Size relief devices for vapour, liquid and fire cases with API 520 and 521 methods and recognize when two-phase relief is needed.
- Conduct and record a HAZOP, choose among hazard identification methods and rank failure modes with FMEA.
- Build fault trees and event trees, calculate individual and societal risk and compare them with tolerable risk criteria.
- Assemble a process safety package for a unit and explain how process safety management keeps it valid.
Course content
12 lessons · 4 h 22 min total · final exam
- 1 Process safety and the lessons of major incidents 22 min · quiz
- 2 Toxicology and industrial hygiene 23 min · quiz
- 3 Source models for releases 23 min · quiz
- 4 Dispersion models and emergency planning 21 min · quiz
- 5 Fires and flammability 22 min · quiz
- 6 Explosions, BLEVEs and dust 20 min · quiz
- 7 Preventing fires and explosions 23 min · quiz
- 8 Relief systems: scenarios, devices and codes 22 min · quiz
- 9 Relief sizing 23 min · quiz
- 10 Hazard identification: checklists, what-if, HAZOP and FMEA 21 min · quiz
- 11 Risk assessment 21 min · quiz
- 12 Capstone: hazard review and relief design for the ethyl acetate tank farm 21 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Requirements
Recommended background. You can start any course at any time.
Description
Engineering process safety at a bioethanol and ethyl acetate plant in Sarnia, Ontario: incidents and their lessons, exposure and ventilation, release and dispersion models, fires, explosions and dust, inerting and static control, relief scenarios and sizing, HAZOP, LOPA and risk assessment, ending with a hazard review and relief design for a tank farm.
Part of the Engineering stream, typically taken in year 3.