S. S. Grossel (Process Safety and Design, Inc.)
J. F. Louvar (Wayne State University)

This product will help faculty, students, and professionals incorporate proper overpressure and underpressure protection in their process designs. This package helps students:

• Understand the technology, special engineering devices, and methods that are used for protection against overpressure and underpressure (vacuum) incidents,
• Understand the root causes of overpressure and underpressure incidents, and
• Design plants with the appropriate features to protect against overpressure and underpressure incidents.

This SACHE product contains two PowerPoint presentations that can be copied and modified to fit specific teaching/learning objectives. It includes detailed instructions covering a) reliefs, b) runaway reactions, and c) safeguards to prevent accidents. This product can be used in design, fluid flow, or control courses. Some background information is included in this package (see Abstract - References) to assist the student in understanding these general concepts. The package is deliberately designed to be only an introduction to these topics. Using this introductory approach, the package can be used for three half-hour lectures or two hours of self-study exercises.

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J. Louvar and R. Schoeff (Wayne State University)

This SACHE product covers the fundamentals and guidelines for preventing dust explosions. This product includes three sections:

• Section 1: A PowerPoint presentation describes the basic concepts for understanding dust explosions (deflagrations, detonations, necessary conditions for causing dust explosions, and the consequences of dust explosions).
• Section 2: This includes two DVDs call Deadly Dust II and III. Deadly Dust II was developed in the 1980s and it emphasizes the technology to prevent dust explosions. Deadly Dust III was developed in the early 2000s and emphasizes the injuries caused by dust explosions. Both DVDs include case histories. Although the DVDs were specifically developed for the grain industry, everything in this product is relevant to the prevention of any dust explosion. The DVDs are available through streaming video links in one of the product files.
• Section 3: This section covers the fundamentals for eliminating dust ignitions from the build-up of static electricity. The topics which are described in this PowerPoint presentation include: a) conditions for the accumulation of static charges, b) specific types of static electricity discharges, c) calculation methods for estimating the potential for ignitions, d) case histories, and e) design methods for eliminating ignitions.

A text document includes background for all of the Powerpoint presentations as well as the videos. This product supports the U.S. Chemical Safety Board’s emphasis concerning the hazards of handling dusts. This emphasis is due to the continued accidents and injuries that are the result of dust explosions.

Student access: All files are available to students logged into the site.

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Dennis C. Hendershot (Rohm and Haas Co., retired)

This module will introduce the concept of inherently safer design in the chemical processing industry. Inherently safer design, or ISD, is receiving more attention in recent years from industry, community groups, and government. When feasible, ISD can be a more robust and reliable approach to managing risk in the chemical industry. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, ISD has also been promoted as a means to reduce chemical hazards, making chemical handling facilities less attractive terrorist targets. It is important for chemical engineers to understand ISD, including its potential benefits and limitations, both to implement ISD where feasible and also to participate in public discussions about the application of ISD in the chemical industry.

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D.A. Crowl (Michigan Tech University)

This video series entitled "Safety in the Chemical Process Industries" presents a strong introduction to the application of chemical process safety technology in an actual chemical facility. All video material was taped at the Chemical Engineering Research Department at BASF Corporation in Wyandotte, Michigan. Most of the demonstrations are given using actual process equipment in the BASF Process Development (PD) facility.

This series is designed as instructional material for undergraduate students in chemical or mechanical engineering as well as industrial engineers or chemists who are being introduced to industrial safety for the first time. This series provides significant supplementary material for an existing undergraduate chemical engineering course on chemical process safety. This series was funded by the National Science Foundation and by BASF Corporation.

Hyperlinks to streaming video sources are included in a word processing file (updated 31 January 2007). A Study Guide and Instructor's Guide were written to accompany the video, and both guides are included with this product.

Student access: Streaming video access and the study guide are available to students through the site.

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S. Horsch and J. Louvar (Wayne State University)
J. Wehman (BASF Corporation, retired)

This product includes a solution to the 2002 AIChE Design Problem that was developed by a student (S. Horsch) with significant assistance from very knowledgeable design professionals; these are the professionals who developed this design problem, and they have worked on this design in an industrial environment.

This product includes concepts, calculations, and drawings that can be used in future AIChE design solutions, for example:

• Relief valve calculations for gases, liquids, and two phase flows;
• Safety review including hazards and resulting safety measures to prevent accidents and inherent safety concepts and features;
• The process flow diagram (PFD) and process and instrument diagram (P&ID); and
• MathCad programs for making the design calculations.

All of the MathCad programs and Visio drawings can be copied for using in future design problem solutions. Additionally, the safety review and inherent safety discussions will be an excellent aid in the development of safety and inherent design concepts for all future AIChE design problems. The AIChE Student Chapters Committee that administers the annual AIChE Design competition approved posting of this example problem.

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