Training Courses

A 3 day seminar for chemists and engineers given by

Who Should Attend?

Process R&D Chemists, Production Chemists, Chemical Engineers and anyone whose responsibilities include safety or risk assessment of chemical processes or building safety into chemical process scale-up.

Introduction

Developing safe processes is of paramount importance to any chemical company. Exothermic chemical reactions in batch and semi- batch processes can result in serious injury to people and plant if they get out of control. Results of thermal runaways include violent loss of containment, possibly explosion and the release of flammable or toxic materials to the environment.

Employers are bound by Health & Safety legislation to ensure the safety of their employees and those outside their employment who might be affected by their activities. Chemical manufacturers must therefore be aware of all potential dangers in their processes and take steps to eliminate them. The best approach is to design safety into the process from the start.

Often, the first sign of loss of control over a reaction is a reduction in yield or in the quality of the product. Thus safety, quality and profitability are all interlinked.

This seminar is designed to enhance the awareness of chemists and engineers regarding hazard issues. Utilizing the expertise of the chemists and chemical engineers at Chilworth Technology and Scientific Update, it will consider hazard control of new chemical processes throughout their development cycle: from early development through to full-scale production. Hazards can often be eliminated by appropriate choice of reagent or synthetic route at the R&D stage. Where this is not possible, techniques exist to quantify the hazards so that robust engineering solutions can he applied in production.

Seminar objectives

• To train chemists and engineers in efficient methods for developing safe, low cost, robust processes for the manufacturer of fine organic chemicals in the minimum amount of time
• To improve the awareness of chemists on the principles of scale-up and development, in chemical engineering concepts relating to safe plant operation and in the latest techniques for the optimization of processes
• To learn from the experience (and mistakes) of others by examining case studies from industry

What you leave with…

• The ability to identify any significant sources of hazard in existing processes or development plans
• An understanding of the latest techniques for assessing risk, and measuring and quantifying chemical process hazards in the work place
• An understanding of the established best practice to reduce the hazard resulting from exothermic reaction systems with a particular emphasis on emergency relief design

Course Outline

Day One
Introduction
The Process Lifecycle
Where hazards arise – a review of reported incidents involving runaway reactions and current legislation
Techniques for safe process design and optimisation
Chemical hazards assessment strategy
Fundamental principles of scale-up and reaction runaway
Workshop problems
Identification of highly energetic materials
Small scale screening tests for liquids, mixtures and powders
Reaction characterization through calorimetry
Discussion and Close of Day 1
Course Dinner

Day Two
Reprise of Day 1
Characterisation of runaway reactions using adiabatic calorimetry
Case studies
Flammability issues associated with chemical manufacture (including a brief discussion of electrostatic hazards)
Tour of Chilworth Technology Laboratories

Day Three
Reprise of Day 2
Selection of Safety Measures and Case Study
Emergency relief venting methodology
Relief system case studies
Process control considerations (safety critical systems, Safety Instrumented Systems, ISA S84.01/IEC 61508/11, equipment reliability and maintenance)
Summary and conclusions