Future Education, Research and Development in Process Safety

This paper begins with the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Disaster. Several lessons learned from this disaster are summarized, especially on safety culture and leadership. Based on Deepwater Horizon rig fires and oil spills as well as other recent disasters, new factors in process accidents are identified, such as new technology applied, system failures and new types of human error etc. According to these new factors, future education and training, research and development in process safety should be performed both in academia and industries. For example, reliable data on process and chemical hazards shall be obtained due to its close relationship with PSM elements, i.e., PHA, Safety Information, and Operating Procedures; Effective decision-making techniques shall be developed. In addition, more research on fire, explosion and smoke controls, advanced control, system reliability, risk analysis and safety culture shall be done. The interdisciplinary nature of process safety is emphasized in education. Based on authors’ teaching and research experience, a separate course (core or elective) of process safety has been proposed to the university’s engineering departments, including chemical engineering (minor in petroleum engineering), fire protection engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, and civil engineering. The paper will provide some insight into future trends in process safety.