(58b) A Proposed Methodology for Bringing Process Safety and Risk Management Into Undergraduate Process Design Courses

In order to successfully bring Process Safety and Risk Management concepts into undergraduate courses on Process Design, the instructor must address three specific domains(1) of learning: technical, cultural, and psychomotor. The technical domain is easily addressed and often over emphasized, since it involves presentation of effective quantitative information relating to hazard characteristics, and consequence & likelihood assessments. The cultural domain can be realized through emphasizing the need for the chemical engineer to include the fundamental questions posed in Process Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment into their design process, along with typical areas such as materials selection, optimization, economics, and design quality checks. Simply stated, the instructor must imprint the students mind with the need for them to consider the existence of hazards, the risk associated with hazards, and possible mitigation or prevention measures when doing basic design work. This will put the “mindset” needed for accomplishing inherently safer design on an equal footing with the more common goals of process optimization and engineering economy. This will also ultimately help prevent the problems inherent to delay in resolving process hazards prior to reaching the common project schedule milestone of Process Hazards Analysis, or worse yet – construction and operation of the process facility. The psychomotor domain is best addressed in undergraduate laboratory courses, but can also be realized through repetitious incorporation of process safety aspects into every problem, case study, and technical concept that is worked in the Process Design Class. Examples and concepts for applying the above methodology will be presented. The ultimate goal here is to make the undergraduate engineer realize it is their job to incorporate process safety and risk management into  their designs. (Reference 1 - D. Crowl, Educating the Next Generation of PSM Professionals, Paper 11 b, AICHE Spring Meeting 2012, Houston, TX.)