AECH 4112 Process Safety Design Winter 2022

Assignment 1 (10%)

Your assignment should have a cover page with all of your group members name and student ID. The
maximum number of group members could be 5 and minimum 3 (no exception).

Due Date: Wednesday, 2nd February (Report + Presentation) 50 marks

The seven most cited accidents in your text book were Flixborough, England; Bhopal, India; Seveso, Italy;
Pasadena, Texas; Texas City, Texas; Jacksonville, Florida; and Port Wentworth, Georgia. All these
accidents had a significant impact on public perceptions and the chemical engineering profession that
added new emphasis and standards in the practice of safety. Based on your assigned case study answer
the following questions.
Q1. What were the root causes of accident from your assigned case study? Draw a table for possible
causes/source of errors, i.e. human error, mechanical failure, design, process upset etc. 5 marks

Q2. a) Draw / reproduce the plant design of your assigned case study. If you cannot find the same
plant design, provide a similar plant design with the same product, i.e. in the case of Flixborough
England the product was caprolactam, in case you cannot find the same plant design you can provide a
basic plant layout of caprolactam production. Please see the following figure for an example (the
following layout is not from case studies).
6 marks

b) Identify and highlight potential hazard from your plant design/layout. List potential dangers
from the identified hazard in a form of table. (see the following figure for example)
Q3. Safety engineering involves eliminating the initiating step and replacing the propagation steps with
termination events. Make a table to Identify and explain the three steps process of your assigned case.
(Read page 44-45 from your text book for clarification), i.e. 6
marks

Identified cause of the initiation Recommendation to eliminate

from case study the initiation step
Initiation

Q4. The best approach to prevent accidents is to add process design features to prevent hazardous
situations. An inherently safer plant is more tolerant of operator errors and abnormal conditions. What
are the major inherent safety techniques? Use table 1.9 to recommend inherent safety techniques for
your case study along with proper justification. 8
marks

Q5. Please prepare a presentation on your case study. Your presentation should have the following
sections: 25 marks
1. Background of the company – origin, the nature of the product, history of the company, any
major incidents/accidents in the past, present safety program etc.
2. Root cause of the accident in your case study (if possible provide short clip of video, ~1 min),
include your Q3 answer for clarification.
3. Impact of the accident – fatality, community/environmental damages
4. Total economical loss, recovery stage for the company / loss of the company etc.
5. Discussion and recommendation for prevention of future explosion/fire/toxic release etc.
(recommendation should be based on nature of the accident from your case study), you can
also include answer to Q4.