81645 - INDUSTRIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY M

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

The course aims at providing the students with the basic elements of loss prevention and process safety in the chemical and process industry, including oil&gas up-stream and down-stream. Fundamental notions on substance hazards and classification of hazardous substances are provided. The approach to the process of risk assessment and management is described. The framework for risk control, governance and mitigation is also provided. Special focus will be devoted to the environmental consequences of industrial accidents.

Contenuti

Requirements/Prior knowledge

Physical and chemical properties of pure substances and mixtures, thermodynamics and phase equilibrium.

Fundamentals of fluid mechanics, basic knowledge of main unit operations of the process industry and understanding of their basic control and safety systems through the reading of P&ID

Fluent spoken and written English is a necessary pre-requisite: all lectures and tutorials, and all study material will be in English.

 

Course Contents

Part A (common to 6 ECTS and 9 ECTS courses)

1) Introduction to loss prevention and risk analysis

Basic notions of safety, hazard and risk. Risk reduction strategies. Inherent safety. The risk assessment procedure. Introduction to relevant regulation.

2) Hazardous properties of substances

Introduction to hazardous properties of materials. Flammability. Toxicity. Environmental damage. The REACH regulation. Classification and labelling of hazardous materials. The material safety data sheet.

3) Hazard identification

Available tools for hazard identification. Analysis of case histories. Safety review. Checklists. What-if analysis. HazId analysis. HazOp analysis. FMECA. Fault tree analysis. Event tree analysis.

4) Frequency evaluation and reliability engineering

Basic notions of probabilities and frequencies. Generic frequencies for loss of containment. Random events and part count. The analysis of complex systems by means of fault trees. Introduction to reliability engineering. Non-repairable components. Repairable components. Reliability databases. The Markov model. Preventive maintenance. Human reliability. Systems reliability.

5) Consequence and damage assessment

Source terms models (liquid, gas, mixed-phase release). Dispersion models for neutral and heavy gases. Models for radiative effects from fire scenarios (pool fire, jet-fire, fireball, flash fire). Models for overpressure effects from explosions (physical explosions, BLEVEs, vapor cloud explosions, confined explosions, runaway reactions). Damage models for heat radiation, overpressure and toxic exposure (threshold and probit approach). Model selection criteria. Introduction to consequence assessment software.

6) Quantitative risk assessment

Quantitative risk assessment studies. Risk indicators: individual risk and societal risk. Risk re-composition. Risk acceptability criteria. Risk mitigation. Area risk analysis and transportation risk analysis. Examples of application.

Part B (only for 9 ECTS course)

1) INTRODUCTION: INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

The interaction of the industrial activities and the environment. The environmental risk analysis. The environmental compartments. The main forms of environmental damage and related substances. The process flow diagram. Heat and material balances of a process. The fugitive emissions.

2) ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE MECHANISMS

Review of the main environmental damage mechanisms. Global warming: a phenomenological view. Stratospheric ozone depletion. Photochemical smog formation. Rain acidification. Eco-toxicity.

3) COMBUSTION PROCESS OF RELEVANCE FOR SAFETY

Flares and vents. Accidental fire scenarios. The combustion process. Hazardous substance formation in combustion scenarios. Energy aspects of combustion.

4) ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION FROM SPILLS

Accidental release scenarios of environmental concern. The source term. Water dispersion. Soil dispersion. Case study: oil spill on water.

Testi/Bibliografia

Lees' Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, S. Mannan editor, IV ed., Butterworth-Heineman, Oxford, UK, 2011

D.A.Crowl, J.F.Louvar, Chemical process safety: fundamentals with applications, III ed., Prentice Hall, New Jersey, USA, 2011

Centre for Chemical Process Safety of AIChE, Guidelines for chemical process quantitative risk analysis (II ed.), New York, USA, 1999

Center for Chemical Process Safety of AIChE, Guidelines for hazard evaluation procedures (III ed.), AIChE, New York, USA, 2008

TNO, Methods for the evaluation of physical effects (Yellow book), Report CPR 14E (III ed.), The Hague, NL, 1997

H. Kumamoto, E. Henley, Probabilistic Risk Assessment and Management for Engineers and Scientists, 2nd edition, IEEE Press, New York, 1996

The above books (sometimes in an older edition) are available at the Biblioteca F.P.Foraboschi, via Terracini 28.

Metodi didattici

Classroom lectures

Tutorials

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

Achievements will be assessed by the means of a final exam. This is based on an analytical assessment of the "expected learning outcomes" described above.

Test of Part A (students attending the 6 ECTS course).
In order to properly assess such achievement the examination is composed of a written section different section, which consist of a test of the duration of 1h 30min, composed of: 4-6 multiple choice questions, each question scores max 3 points; 1-2 open questions (max 8 points); 1-2 numerical exercise (max 12 points).

Test of Part B. For students attending the 9 ECTS course the written test of Part A is complemented with extra questions on Part B. This test includes further 3-5 multiple choice questions; 1 or 2 open questions; 1 or 2 numerical exercises. Extra time (30-45 min) will be provided for the test. The final mark will take into account the results of both parts, according to the proportion of the credits awarded.

 

Higher grades will be awarded to students who demonstrate an organic understanding of the subject, a high ability for critical application, and a clear and concise presentation of the contents.

To obtain a passing grade, students are required to at least demonstrate a knowledge of the key concepts of the subject, some ability for critical application, and a comprehensible use of technical language.

A failing grade will be awarded if the student shows knowledge gaps in key-concepts of the subject, inappropriate use of language, and/or logic failures in the analysis of the subject.

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Lecture slides and integrative supporting material will be available on-line through AMS Campus service (or Alm@DL - UniBo credentials required for access).

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Giacomo Antonioni

Consulta il sito web di Alessandro Tugnoli