(215c) Possible Aversion of Unsafe Situations by Semi-Automatic Operation
AIChE Annual Meeting
2011
2011 Annual Meeting
Separations Division
Distillation Honors Session I: William Luyben
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 - 9:20am to 9:45am
The Chemical Safety Board (or “CSB”) provides videos describing accidents that have occurred at refineries and chemical plants. A recent review of those videos revealed that approximately half of the accidents could possibly have been averted via semi-automatic control software in the control rooms. FRI’s experimental distillation unit in Stillwater, OK, was recently augmented with Yokogawa’s Modular Procedural Automation Technology, which provides FRI’s technicians with start-up, transition and shutdown assistance. It is expected that the software will reduce the potential for unsafe events such as those that were described in the CSB videos.