LEARNING OUTCOMES

To provide students a solid knowledge on process and occupational safety problems of industrial plants, to introduce evaluation tools and fundamental design approaches to minimize and prevent risk for man, environment and assets.

TEACHING METHODS

In-class lessons. Tutorials and numerical case-studies are presented and critically discussed during the lessons. Specific design exercises and application of process engineering are solved in group focusing on acquring transversal knowledge.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

1. Introduction

Process plant design basics. Techniques for simplified plant cost estimation. Environmental and accident risk. Unwanted events classification. Personnel and process safety. Primary water, wastewater: overall cycle and future developments. Main parameters for the primary- and waste-water characterization  Relevant national and international regulations.

2. Environmental Hazard Identification and Analysis

Gas, vapour and dust hazardous properties and their evaluation.  Hazard identification tools and application to case-studies. Fire, explosion, instability and reactivity. Check List; Ranking method; FMEA; Hazard and Operability Study (HazOp); Fault Tree Analysis (FTA).

3. Severity and environmental damage

Source term models.  Dispersion modelling of neutral and dense gas and cold jet. Post-release evolving  scenarios Damage analysis. Probit equations. Notable major accidents and relevant lessons.

4 . Gaseous emissions treatment

Local, individual and social risk. Damage models (threshold and probit approach). Risk acceptability criteria. Risk mitigation and design of emergency relief systems. Land use planning.  Risk in multimodal HazMat transportation. HSE risk management. Risk perception.

5. Water treatment plants

The mechanical pre-treatment of primary water and wastewater. The aerobic and anaerobic processes of biological treatment. The activated sludge process, biological reactions and kinetics. Type of activated sludge processes: suspended or fixed biomass, membranes. The sludge, from a problem to a resource; treatment and use. T

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Learning material is provided during the lessons period. Refernce text available at the University library or on the web:

Metcalf & Eddy – Wastewater Engineering – Treatment and Reuse – Mc Graw Hill - 2017

Edzwald - Water Quality and Treatment: A Handbook on Drinking Water, Sixth Edition – AWWA (American Water Works Association), ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers), McGraw Hill - 2011

J. Casal "Evaluation of the effects and consequences of major accidents in industrial plants". Elsevier, Oxford, UK .

G. Nota. “Advances in Risk Management” Sciyo ed.(Chapter 4 : Trends, problems and outlook in process industry risk assessment and aspects of personal and process safety" by B. Fabiano and H. J. Pasman.  Free download at: http://www.intechopen.com/books/advances-in-risk-management

Further textbooks:

R.H. Perry, D.W. Green, “Perry’s chemical engineers’ Handbook” 9th ed., Mc Graw Hill – 2019.

G.G. Brown. “Unit Operations” Hoepli ed.