(58d) Capstone Safety and Toxicology Course Methodologies

by

James E. Smith, Jr., Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL, Richard F. Garnett, Honda Manufacturing Alabama, Lincoln Alabama, Tara Henriksen, CFEI Senior Chemical Engineer at CASE Forensics Corp, Seattle, WA and Robert Jordan, PSRG – Houston TX and HCS Engineering, Decatur, AL^.

The Capstone Safety and Toxicology Course will be based upon the Chemical Process Safety Fundamentals with Applications, by Daniel A. Crowl and Joseph F. Louvar (2011) with several interesting adaptations that we will present in this paper and the subsequent presentation.  We intend to use presentation materials provided by Dr. Crowl but enhance the materials by adding diversity in four separate areas using several visiting professionals and a virtual visitor to augment the course materials. 

Although we will follow the text’s table of content, the area of toxicology, Chapter 2 will be the first project area to receive augmentation.  For the last 8 years, Dr. James E. Smith, Jr., Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL, has been utilizing an approach to expand upon aspects of safety and toxicology that the students seen to enjoy and learn from. 

The approach starts by carefully selecting various classes of industrial chemicals including oxidizers, acids, strong bases, toxic gases, carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic and hallucinogenic compounds to name a few.  Each student is assigned a unique chemical and initially told to obtain the MSDS sheet and fully expand all acronym typically found in the data.  They are also assigned to investigate the fire hazards associated with the chemical, spill mitigation, DOT transportation restrictions, personal protection gear, and the CGA number and its importance to the safe handling of compressed gases utilizing industrial suppliers data from such companies as Matheson or Air Gas if applicable.   They are to consult the Hazardous Chemical Desk Reference, by N. Irving Sax and Richard J. Lewis, Sr. for their information on the substance.  Finally, they are to consider poisoning and what medical conditions might occur at the various levels typical found in the MSDS sheet.  They are to determine how either they or someone they are responsible for might respond to slight to high doses of the compound.  The effect on human health from the medical sided should be explored.  If the dosage can cause death or disability then it must be investigated and information that hospital poison prevention needs from the EMT considered.   Here, we invite either a local EMT Unit or a Registered Nurse from our College of Nursing to discuss issue of poisoning and poison prevention by industrial and household chemicals.

This two-week project is then written into a report at a freshmen level.  Since there are numerous chemicals assigned, the interesting part that the students enjoy is the round table discussion, when each student presents a general overview of the chemical they were assigned to the class.  In this way, students are exposed to the hazards and toxic effects of numerous chemicals during a single class session.  Examples of successful chemicals used in this type of assignment will be part of the presentation. 

Our next augmentation has been developed by Mr. Richard F. Garnett  PMP, P.E., Honda Manufacturing Alabama, LLC, 1800 Honda Drive, Lincoln Alabama 35096 and he will examine Governmental Rules & Regulation on issues of design.  The U.S. regulatory system is designed to protect the health and safety of U.S. citizens and to protect the environment. The chemical design process is impacted by both these mandatory regulations (OSHA, EPA, etc) and voluntary standards (NEC, API, ASME, etc). Leveraging the information provided in Chapter 3 of Chemical Process Safety text, this lecture will discuss a brief history of safety regulations using the impact of Bhopal on the regulator environment (OSHA 1910.119) as an example. The lecture will provide a brief overview of typical OSHA and EPA requirements and of the National Electric code. ASME B31.3, the ASME Pressure Vessel Code, API 610 and API 520.

Richard holds a Bachelors of Chemical Engineering from Auburn University (1981) and Masters in Management Science from the University of Alabama at Huntsville (1995). He is currently working toward a PhD in Engineering Management at UAH.  Mr. Garnett has over thirty years of experience in the Chemical and Automotive industries and has a diverse background in the practice of Process Engineering and Project Management. Before coming to Honda, he worked at D&S Consulting Engineers, Novacor Chemicals Inc. (Decatur, Al) and at AKZO Coatings Inc. (Baxley Ga.).  He has been delivering lectures for many years to our senior design course that will migrate to the Capstone Safety and Toxicology Course.  His materials will be available during the presentation.

Tara Henriksen, Ph.D, CFEI Senior Chemical Engineer at CASE Forensics Corp., Seattle WA USA will expand upon issues of fire safety and prevention. Dr. Hendrickson holds a Ph.D in Chemical Engineering from the University of Utah, and has spent her career studying failure mechanisms and conducting failure analyses in the chemical processing industry.  She has investigated numerous failures, which have resulted in fires, explosions, BLEVES, corrosion damage, pollution, personal injuries and fatalities.  Dr. Henriksen will contribute to the curricula by presenting 'lessons learned' from case studies she has investigated in the field to demonstrate how process accidents could have been avoided through the implementation of fire safety practices.  In particular, students will learn how engineering controls, preventative maintenance, and adherence to appropriate design and testing standards can be used to avoid accidents.  Her presentation to the students will enhance materials covered in Chapters 6 and 7.  She will present this information by either a prepared DVD or perhaps by SKYPE depending on her schedule.  Dr. Henriksen’s materials will be available during the presentation.

Finally, Robert Jordan - Senior Process Engineer will address HAZOP related issues expanding upon Chapters 11 and 12.  The purpose of this session will be to give chemical engineering students a familiarity with HAZOP studies and what the role of the chemical engineer is as a participant in the studies.  The approach will be to first explore a brief history of HAZOP as a technique and the mechanics of the methodology focused on the use of Guidewords/Deviations.  Next we will look at the relationship of HAZOP and the Process Safety Management (PSM) Standard.  We will review briefly the sections of the PSM Standards with emphasis on those most closely associated with the role of chemical engineers.  This will also include a discussion of HAZOP and why it is a superior technique.  We will then review and discuss the information a chemical engineer would develop for the study so they know what to bring to the study.  This will include information such as: process descriptions, operating limits, and process procedures.  Finally the role of the chemical engineer in the study will be examined to include a discussion of the types of questions the engineer should expect.  The session will conclude with a demonstration of the HAZOP technique using an example from the CCPS book on Hazard Evaluation Procedures.  The background material on the example will be given out prior to the class so the students can review the material and be familiar with the process.  There will be no follow-up homework assignments.

Robert holds a BS in Chemistry from the University of Southern Mississippi, a BS in Chemical Engineering from Mississippi State University and an MBA in International Finance from Washington University in St. Louis.  He first trained as a HAZOP Leader in 1991 and conducted his first HAZOP Leader Training class in 1996.  He has been active in HAZOP Leader training and conducting HAZOP studies both domestically and overseas.  He has worked at numerous chemical plants including: National Fertilizer Development Center – Muscle Shoals, AL, Amoco Decatur Plant – Decatur, AL., Amoco Wood River Plant – Wood River, IL, Amoco Chemical Manufacturing Services – Chicago, IL, Amoco WE&C PSM Group – Houston, TX, BP Decatur Works – Decatur, AL and PSRG – Houston TX and HCS Engineering-Decatur, AL. and has a wealth of materials some of which will be shared during the presentation.

 Conclusions

We feel that the four topic discussed above, along with the well written text will contribute to the development of a capstone safety course while providing the audience with potentially interesting ideas and concepts they may choose to adapt or suggest modifications to our course as discussion proceed. References

Backer, W. and Mossman, A.L., Matheson Gas Data Book, Matheson Gas Products, East Rutherford, N.J., (1987).

CFR 1910.119  Process Safety Management

Crowl, D.A. and Louvar, J., F., Chemical Process Safety Fundamentals with Applications, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ (2011).

Dreisbach, R.H., Handbook of Poisoning: Diagnosis and Treatment, Lange Medical Publications, Los Altos California (1974).

Sax, N.I. and Lewis, Sr., R.J., Hazardous Chemicals Desk Reference, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, NY (1987).