2017-2018

Research Highlights

Making Safety Second NatureThe Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center was established in 1995 in memory of Mary Kay O’Connor, an operations superintendent who died in an incident on October 23,1989.

The Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center is the world’s foremost university-based process safety center. The center serves industry, government, academia and the public, is a resource in education and research, and provides service to all stakeholders.

Over the past 20 years, the body of work created by the center has led to its inarguable recognition as an unbiased science-based organization focused on creating dialogue and consensus on difficult scientific topics, amongst all stakeholders. The guidance of a steering committee of consortium member companies and a technical advisory committee of industry expert ensures that center activities are relevant to the actual practice of process safety.

Chemicals play a key role in today’s high-tech world. The modern chemical industry is linked to every technologically advanced industry. Only a handful of the goods and services we enjoy on a daily basis would exist without essential chemical products.

Safe use of chemicals creates a healthier economy and a higher standard of living, but unsafe use threatens lives, businesses and ultimately our world.

To that end, our programs and research activities enhance safety in the process industries. Our educational activities are aimed at making safety second nature to everyone in the industry. In addition, we develop safer processes, equipment, procedures and management strategies to minimize losses.

Center personnel conduct studies pertaining to general issues of process safety as well as specific interests of the center’s consortium members.

Note from the DirectorWithout a doubt, one of the most rewarding aspects of my job as director of the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center is working to educate and prepare the next generation of engineers. Towards this goal, the center continues to play a pivotal role in engineering education at Texas A&M University, helping produce exemplary professionals with a strong commitment to safety in the workplace and at large.

The students working with the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center are talented, dedicated and ambitious, as evidenced by the wide breadth of research areas in which they are involved. From important studies on safety climate to critical research on liquefied natural gas hazards and dust explosions, our students are applying sound science to real-world issues vital to the process industries.

I invite you to peruse this publication and learn more about the center and our students who truly are “making safety second nature.”

As always, feel free to contact me with feedback or questions at 979.845.3489 or via email at mannan@tamu.edu.

Industry Research ActivitiesOverall research goals are to develop:

• Systematic identification and evaluation risk, based on severity of consequences and probability of occurrence, to prioritize projects related to certain processes; types of process, storage and transportation systems; and various chemicals

• Devices, systems and other means for improving safety of chemical operations, storage, transportation and use by prevention or mitigation

• Inherently safer process schemes for the most common and most hazardous processes

• Technology and methods to develop engineering design concepts and implement such processes

• Improved prediction and analysis of behavior of hazardous chemicals and associated systems

• Projects to most effectively address identified risks

Dr. M. Sam MannanDirector, Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center

Regents Professor, Chemical Engineering

Holder of the T. Michael O’Connor Chair I

The Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center provides a neutral forum to discuss difficult issues related to process safety. Toward that goal, the Chemical Safety Program Assessment Project is a significant effort that brings together a diverse group of stakeholders. Objectives include identifying national chemical safety goals; identifying and implementing activities necessary to accomplish these goals; and establishing a measurement system to help gauge progress toward these goals.

In addition, the center serves as an information resource base for process safety, acting as a library and software laboratory. It provides consultation services for small and medium enterprises, government agencies, institutions, local emergency planning committees and others agencies. Independent incident analysis services are also available to industry and government agencies, particularly for incidents suggesting new or complex phenomena.

Resources

ServiceExpertise

The Reactive Chemicals Laboratory is equipped with several calorimeters for studying thermal behavior of reactive systems. With this experimental capability, the thermal behavior of wide ranges of reactive systems and systems of questionable chemical compatibility can be investigated. The Aerosol Laboratory can be used to study the behavior of fluid aerosols leaking from manufacturing processes. Additionally, the center is linked to tremendous resources throughout The Texas A&M University System, including:

Dr. Sam Mannan, center director, is an internationally recognized expert on process safety and risk assessment. In addition to his many professional honors and achievements, Dr. Mannan has served as a consultant to numerous entities in both the academic and private sectors. He also has testified before the U.S. Congress on multiple occasions, lending his expertise on matters of national security as it relates to chemical safety and infrastructure.

Other center researchers include leaders in the fields of process safety management; liquefied gas safety; ammonia and fertilizer plant safety; refinery and chemical plant safety engineering; and risk assessment for the process industries.

Center personnel are active in technical committees of professional societies such as:

• The American Institute of Chemical Engineers • The American Society of Mechanical Engineers • The American Society of Safety Engineers • The Systems Safety Society • The National Society of Professional Engineers

In addition, the center Steering Committee provides guidance to the operational activities of the center, while the Technical Advisory Committee reviews and refines the research agenda.

• Texas A&M University experts in chemical engineering, chemistry, industrial psychology and other departments

• The Department of Aerospace Engineering’s Low Speed Wind Tunnel, a self-contained research facility capable of conducting a wide variety of tests for industry, governmental agencies, educational institutions and private individuals

• The state-of-the-art Brayton Fire Training Field, which includes full-scale buildings, towers, tanks and industrial plant structures for training simulations for career and volunteer firefighters and fire marshals

• The Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, the largest research center in the world for studying the effects of natural and technological hazards

4

Synthesis and Characterization of Polymer Nanocomposites for Fundamental Understanding of Flammability and Thermal Degradation Kinetics

Polymers are widely used in our day-to-day lives and we are often unaware of the fire hazard these hydrocarbons pose. Polymer nanocomposites have a potential to lead the way to satisfy material performance with enhanced flame retardancy in terms of char production. The main objective of this research is to gain a fundamental understanding of the flame retardancy of polymers through a study of thermal, mechanical and flammability study. For this purpose, the in-situ polymerization method for synthesizing polymer nanocomposites has been developed. Primarily, the nanocomposites have shown good thermal stability and mechanical properties. Flammability studies will further reveal information regarding the flame retardancy of these materials.

Lubna AhmedPh.D., Chemical Engineering

A Systematic Approach to Alarm Identification with Application to Tennessee Eastman Problem

Abnormal event management (AEM) of process plants has garnered attention in recent years. It has been estimated that $20 billion are lost due to abnormal situations each year. Efficient monitoring of process variables and timely corrective measure are at the crux of AEM. The most process monitoring techniques in current practice involves the use of alarms to alert the operator, thereby requiring a corrective action to restore normal operation. The ‘alarm identification’ is an important aspect of the alarm system design, which is the focus of this research project. It concerns the selection of a potential subset of process measurements to configure to the alarm system. Most of the previous works on alarm identification involves a qualitative approach. This project aims to develop an alarm identification design technique that incorporates quantitative aspects. The operator-centered approach aims at providing the operator ample time to respond while having fewer active alarms. The proposed approach is implemented on the benchmark industrial case-study: The Tennessee Eastman process control problem.

Joshiba Ariamuthu Venkidasalapathy

Ph.D., Chemical Engineering

Enhancing the Understanding of Deflagration-to-Detonation Transition (DDT)

There are two main combustion modes in vapor cloud explosions: deflagration and detonation. Deflagrations occur when the flame front travels at subsonic speeds leading to overpressure with the same order of magnitude as the atmospheric pressure. Unlike deflagrations, detonations are characterized by supersonic flame propagation velocities and significant overpressures. Several experimental studies have shown that when proper conditions are met, the flame front may accelerate, reaching the detonation combustion mode. This phenomenon is known as deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT). However, more recent large-scale tests have demonstrated that intermediate states between laminar deflagrations and CJ detonations are more likely to happen for fuels with low and medium reactivity, such as methane and propane. Therefore, this research project focuses on studying experimentally and numerically intermediate combustion regimes during deflagration-to-detonation transition. The ultimate goal is to understand the effects of layout and fire suppressants on the final flame speed.

Cassio AhumadaPh.D., Chemical Engineering

5

Effect of Morphology on Dust Explosion and the Effect of Shear Force while on Dispersed Combustible Nano-Dust

Dust explosions have been persistent in industry claiming lives and causing significant property damage. These explosions are characterized by severity [Pmax, dP/dT, Kst] and ease of ignition [MIE, MEC, MIT]. Studies have found that these characteristics depend upon particle size, chemical composition and dispersity. However, the dependence of the explosion characteristics on shape and morphology has not been studied. Although the variation of explosion characteristics with particle size is well understood for micro-dust, those variations cannot be extrapolated to nano-size regime due to agglomeration and non-uniform dispersion of nano-dusts. The understanding of dispersion phenomena and its effect on agglomerate size and explosion characteristics of combustible nano-dusts is limited. The main objective of the current research is to address the influence of particle shape and morphology on the dust explosion characteristics such as Pmax, MIE, Kst, etc. It also aims to study the effects of dispersion, and the shear associated with it, on the nano-dust agglomerate size, particle size distribution and its explosion characteristics. This research will help to fill a gap in understanding dust explosion dependence on its particle properties and the dispersion effect on nanoparticle size and explosion characteristics.

Pranav BagariaPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Effect of Partial Inerting on Minimum Ignition Characteristics of Dusts

Dust explosions continue to present a constant hazard to the process industries; thus, mitigation remains an important field of research. Studies have found that the minimum ignition energy (MIE) of a dust is influenced by factors such as temperature, pressure, oxygen concentration and particle size. Industrially, partial inerting has various advantages over other mitigation techniques and is one of the lesser explored areas in dust explosion mitigation. There is limited understanding of the dust explosion mechanism and less available literature in this area. The objective of the current research is to study the effect of inerting on Minimum Ignition Energy (MIE) for different family of materials. The study also aims to develop a model considering the molecular (bond energies) and macroscopic (limiting oxygen content- LOC) aspects to explain the ignition behavior of dusts under varying conditions.

Purvali ChaudhariPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Analysis of Criteria for Runaway Reactions in Hydroprocessing Units

Runaway reactions in hydroprocessing units can lead to catastrophic consequences as the reactors operate at high temperature and pressure, and the reactor effluent is a highly explosive mixture that contains hydrogen, and gas and liquid hydrocarbons. Therefore, it is of high importance to identify the reasonable temperature limit to prevent the runaway reactions.

Though runaway reaction is a subject extensively researched, most of the literature handles simple processes and little focuses on hydroprocessing, which includes three-phase and innumerable reactions. In this research, general criteria regarding runaway reaction such as Semenov Theory, Thomas and Bowes Criterion, Adler and Enig Criterion, Van Welsenaere and Froment Criterion, and Morbidelli and Varma Criterion will be reviewed. In addition, particular kinetic and reactor models for the hydroprocessing will be established, upon which the criteria for runaway reaction prevention will be determined.

Yongchul ChoM.S., Chemical Engineering

6

Modeling of Flashing Fluids Discharging Through a Pipeline Puncture

Large amounts of substances are transported in pipelines worldwide. This activity represents a hazard that needs to be quantitatively assessed through discharge models that are capable of accurately predicting the outflow when a pipeline ruptures. The calculation of the discharge rate of pipelines transporting gases or liquids is well understood and accurate models exist for this purpose; less well understood is the discharge of flashing liquids. The expansion following the rupture causes some liquids such as dense phase CO2, LNG or LPG to produce a two-phase release. Current models do not describe the behavior of a multiphase outflow following a pipeline puncture accurately. Usually, when there is a puncture in a pipeline, the decompression rate is lower in comparison to a full bore rupture and a stratified regime predominates inside the pipeline during the release. Most of the models in the literature assume a homogeneous equilibrium approach, which cannot describe the flow stratification. The main objective of this research is to investigate the effect of geometric and operational parameters on the inner flow regime during the rupture of pipelines transporting liquefied gases using computational fluid dynamics.

Tatiana FlechasPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Flammability Characteristics of Light Hydrocarbons and its Mixtures at Elevated Conditions

Flammability limits of combustible gases like hydrogen, methane, and propane can be influenced by many factors such as temperature, pressure, and humidity. When combustible gas mixtures are ignited, large amounts of reaction energy will be released in a short period of time, which can cause deflagration or even detonation. Moreover, the highly exothermic reaction poses threats to the facility and people. The objective of this research is to study the flammability characteristics of combustible gases at elevated conditions (high temperature and high pressure) and propose corresponding methods to handling them safely. By using both experimental data and theoretical calculations, an improved Le Chatelier Law is postulated and tested to better predict the flammability limits of combustible mixtures.

Ning GanPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Development of a Systemic Approach for Chemical Reactivity Hazards Assessment Applied to Specific Functional Groups

Reactivity tests for identification and understanding of reactive chemical hazards are conducted using different experimental tools of calorimetry. These attempt to predict chemical properties and unsafe process conditions. Moreover, there is often an under prediction of reactivity properties (e.g. over pressure), and experimental techniques face significant challenges for its extensive duration and high costs.

A systemic approach is proposed in order to make a generalized prediction of reactive properties (e.g. Onset Temperature). The main objective of this research is to develop prediction tools based on systematic laboratory testing and molecular models techniques. This will expedite reactive hazard assessment, thus reducing the related costs in industry. Functional groups will be chosen based on different criteria including incident history. Therefore by using molecular properties and kinetic parameters obtained from experimental testing, reactivity descriptors will be developed and verified with existing data.

Harold EscobarPh.D., Chemical Engineering

7

Computational Fluid Dynamics Model Reduction for the Global Multi-Objective Optimization of Monoethylene Glycol Production

Process incidents often emerge from an inability to understand complex interactions between and within tightly coupled system components under time pressure. As such, computationally intensive nonlinear first principles models such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are employed. The proposed research aims to use model reduction techniques such as PCA and machine learning to develop a reduced-order transient CFD model for the production of monoethylene glycol from ethylene oxide. The reduced-order model will be incorporated into an object-oriented Bayesian network (OOBN) for dynamic risk assessment. It will then be used in a global multi-objective optimization algorithm for the simultaneous minimization of risk, cost, and environmental impact. In this manner, knowledge of localized flow behavior from the reduced-order CFD model can be used in the systematic identification of optimal operating conditions and reactor configurations.

Christopher GordonPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Comprehensive Testing Hierarchy for Reactive Chemical Identification

Reactive chemicals are a major hazard affecting the processing, storage, and handling of chemicals that can lead to serious consequences such as fires, explosions, and toxic gas releases. In the Chemical Safety Board’s Reactive Hazard Investigation of 167 serious incidents, over 40 classes of chemicals were identified with no clear dominating class and most were not rated as reactive chemicals. While most research focuses on classes already in use, this research plans to address the issue of how to identify a reactive chemical by developing a hierarchy of testing procedures through experiments and molecular modeling. The goal of this research is to produce a testing procedure for the vast majority of reactive chemicals that can be used by industry to identify potential risk before production.

Hallie GrahamPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Effects of Hydrogen on the Strength and Fracture Characteristics of Multigrain Metals

The presence of atomic hydrogen in metals plays an important part in metals in the process industries, Metal grain structure also plays an important role in determining the strength and mechanical properties of metals. The generation, migration, and diffusion of hydrogen is difficult to experimentally level. Hydrogen’s interaction in multi-grain systems is less-well understood. By developing a hydrogen multi-grain model and mapping changes in properties and failure through a model system of palladium-hydrogen, insight is developed into the hydrogen concentration and grain-size effects on properties of metals exposed to hydrogen.

Richard GustafsonPh.D., Material Science and

Engineering

8

Cumulative Risk Assessment Model to Analyze Increased Risk due to Impaired Barriers in Offshore Drilling Rigs

There is always an increased potential for adverse consequences resulting from equipment, procedure or a person not doing their work properly. The threat from the cumulative effect of a number of such deviations (such as delayed maintenance, aging assets, loss of redundancy, and insufficient competency) can be significant. In order to assess total risk, we need to consider technical, operational, human and organizational factors. Current research focuses on developing a framework that integrates these factors based on information from various data sources within a plant to provide a look at the current health condition of barriers and hence outline the cumulative risk existing within the facility.

Zohra HalimPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Dust-Gas Hybrid Minimum Ignition Energy Prediction

A large percentage of the raw materials, intermediates, and finished products in the chemical process industry are solids. Processing of the solids often results in dusts which, when suspended in air, have the potential to result in a deflagration if the concentration is adequate and a minimum amount of ignition energy is present (MIE). This situation becomes more complex when a flammable gas or vapor is present along with the dust, resulting in a hybrid system. The hybrid minimum ignition energy (HMIE) is the smallest amount of energy required to ignite a dust/gas system. There is limited understanding of the interactions between combustible dust and flammable gas during the ignition process. Models to predict the HMIE are limited in the research literature. The objective of this current research is to study the fundamental contributions of the hybrid flammable dust/gas systems for various families of materials to develop better prediction models. Haitian Han

M.S., Safety Engineering

Inherently Safe Decision-Making Framework: Application to Early Stage Butadiene Project Selection

The natural gas revolution in America is changing the feedstock landscape and creating challenges in production of conventional high valued chemicals, such as Butadiene. Naphtha steam crackers, the primary method for producing butadiene, are being replaced by ethane crackers and the butadiene output is limited. As a result, alternative on-spec alternatives must be considered in order to maintain future demand growth. The objective of this research is to identify reactive pathways from ethane to butadiene in order to take advantage of new low-cost feedstock. Additional alternative feedstocks to naphtha include butane, butane, and ethanol, and will be considered during this study. This research also aims to establish a decision-making framework to be utilized for early project evaluations taking into account safety, technical, and economic considerations.

Jeremy IkeoguPh.D., Chemical Engineering

9

Resilience Analysis Framework for Process Design and Operations

Increasing process safety and risk management challenges in the process industries and change in the public perception of hazards and risk globally have necessitated exploring tools for efficient risk management. The application of the resilience engineering perspective is gradually being explored as an approach for considering the dynamics of socio-technical aspects based on systems theory. The resilience methodology emphasizes non-linear dynamics, new types of threats, uncertainty, and recovery from upset or catastrophic situations. The main focus of this research is to propose a holistic method to integrate both technical (process parameters variations) and social (policy/regulations, human and organizational) factors including prediction, survival, and recovery analysis for process facilities. The framework developed in this research is called Process Resilience Analysis Framework (PRAF) comprising of four aspects: early detection, error tolerant design, plasticity, and recoverability. PRAF would be applicable to both onshore and offshore installations, primarily focusing on early detection of unsafe zones, assessment of aggregate risks and prioritization of safety barriers during abnormal situations, and reduction in response time resulting in enhanced recovery and mitigation of consequences.

Prerna JainPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Phase Equilibrium Studies on N-oxidation Systems to Identify Inherently Safer Operating Conditions

Alkylpyridine N-oxides are used in the pharmaceutical industries to synthesize analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs. Currently, the N-oxides are produced in semi-batch reactors where alkylpyridines are oxidized with hydrogen peroxide and phosphotungstic acid catalyst. However, the N-oxidation is accompanied by the undesired, condition-dependent decomposition of hydrogen peroxide that can lead to a thermal runaway or cause over-pressurization in the reaction vessel. The decomposition of hydrogen peroxide is exacerbated during the N-oxidation of higher order alkylpyridines due to liquid-liquid demixing which jeopardizes the safety of the process and reduces its efficiency. This research is focused on predicting the phase equilibrium for an alkylpyridine-N-oxide-water system. According to previously published literature, the N-oxide increases the solubility of alkylpyridines in the water phase. The equilibrium studies would identify the component compositions for which a homogeneous system prevails. The results could be used to implement the inherent safety concept – “hybridization” to the N-oxidation system wherein the concentration of product N-oxide can be controlled during the N-oxidation to maintain a less hazardous environment.

Sunder JanardananPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Facility Siting Study of LNG-FSRU System Based on MADA

The motivation of this research is to establish a general offshore operation system, LNG-FSRU (Floating Storage Regasification Unit) system, to involve both marine transportation process and chemical safety process. This research is to apply chemical process safety methodology to shipping and offshore industry, trying to support decision-makers facing LNG-FSRU siting problems and to arouse public concern on nearshore/offshore safety. GIS based multi-attribute decision analysis (MADA) was adopted as the main logic of this research, and the evaluation framework was constituted by four layers (objective layer, process layer, hazard layer and attribute layer) by considering the data availability. Furthermore, three consecutive processes were determined for the whole system. For navigational process and berthing process, these two LNG tankers related operation processes were realized by the ship simulator V-Dragon 3000A. For LNG transferring process, the simulation runs were carried out by chemical consequence software PHAST. The whole evaluation framework was structured by the identified hazards and attributes. Two locations were selected for the risk evaluation, and based on the value of final LNG-FSRU system, the preferred alternative can be determined accordingly.

Chenxi JiM.S., Safety Engineering

10

The Development of Biosensors for the Detection of Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion (MIC)

Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion (MIC) is a form of corrosion that is either caused or accelerated by the presence of microbiota on the surface of metals and other materials of construction. It is found in the oil & gas, chemical process industry, water networks etc. MIC control is achieved primarily through the use of biocides, which come with associated economic and environmental costs. Hence, an early-detection system which is real-time/pseudo real-time would help combat MIC before it becomes widespread through bio-film formation. This is especially important for systems in hard-to-access and harsh environments, such as sub-sea pipelines. The objective of this research is to develop a sensor platform based on a nanowire matrix which is functionalized with bio-molecules to detect these MIC on a real-time basis. These sensors provide the possibility of precise and specific detection due to their large surface areas functionalized with bio-molecules. They may be mounted on pigs (devices used in the maintenance of pipelines) or at locations where MIC is suspected. This tool could assist in devising mitigation strategies; thus, reducing the environmental and economic cost of MIC.

Pranav KannanPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Modeling of High Expansion Foam for LNG Vapor Risk Mitigation

The consumption of natural gas is expected to increase by over 70 percent over the next few decades, as it is a cleaner source of energy compared to oil or coal. Liquefaction of natural gas can be an effective way of storage and transport because its volume is around 600 times lower in liquid form. However, a leak of liquefied natural gas (LNG) can result in a catastrophic scenario. It may form a vapor cloud, which can migrate downwind near ground level due to its dense gas behavior and potentially ignite. The NFPA recommends the use of high expansion foam to mitigate LNG release vapor risk. The objective of this research is to understand the mechanisms of heat transfer involved between foam and LNG, and create a model for high expansion foam in order to estimate how much is needed and the optimal method of application.

Pratik KrishnanPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Optimize Ventilation Systems in Confined and Unconfined Workplaces Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

Ventilation is the most common method to control toxic and explosive airborne materials in confined and unconfined spaces. The purpose of ventilation is to dilute or remove toxic and explosive vapors with air to prevent potential poisoning or explosion. In this study, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools will be utilized to better understand the efficiency and mechanisms of ventilation systems. The objective of this work is to evaluate the optimized ventilation systems in both confined and unconfined workplaces, by considering the installation location and exhaust air flow rate. The results of the CFD simulation can serve as reference to maximize ventilation efficiency and minimize the energy cost.

Zeren JiaoM.S., Chemical Engineering

11

Process Safety in Nanomaterials

Due to the immense potential of nanomaterials for diverse applications, the large-scale production of nanomaterials is of increasing commercial and academic interest. As these materials are gaining prominence, it is important to look into their potential process safety hazards. This research takes a proactive process safety approach to nanomaterial scale up. The scale up, storage, and handling of graphite oxide (GO) will be investigated.

GO is an alternative synthesis route to produce graphene-like materials. Graphene is particularly desirable for energy storage and composite filler applications. The GO method is predominantly used because existing direct methods of large-scale graphene production are not economical using current technology. This method involves the oxidation of graphite to GO and its subsequent reduction to reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The proposed method has shown potential for bulk production at high yield. However, prior studies have shown that GO can undergo explosive decomposition under certain conditions and its synthesizing steps involve producing unstable oxides. There is no documented process safety incident specifically related to GO so far but it is worth investigating to avoid any undesirable process safety incidents in future. This research will study synthesis and storage of GO in details to recommend inherently safer operating conditions.

Pritishma LakhePh.D., Chemical Engineering

Mitigation of Thermal Runaway Risk for Polymerization Process

Thermal runaway has been a major threat to the process industry for decades. In light of numerous failure modes that lead to run away and its catastrophic consequences, it is necessary to develop methods to mitigate thermal runaway risk. Reports show that the polymerization process is where thermal runaway occurs most often. The unique kinetic and flow behavior of polymerization escalates the difficulty of preventing thermal runaway. The present research focuses on the development of a polymerization reaction inhibition system (PRIS) and thermal runaway early detection techniques. By deep understanding of kinetic-transport interactions in the polymerization process, theoretical insights are expected to guide industrial applications of mitigation methods.

Guanyang LiuPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Effects of Flow Conditions on the Performance of Corrosion Inhibitors in Pipes

Major process safety incidents have been caused by corrosion all over the world. These incidents are usually linked to leakage of highly flammable liquids or gases, causing severe damage to the environment, affecting people, and ultimately resulting in monetary losses. Despite the increasing knowledge of corrosion, efforts are still needed to understand different damage mechanisms and their control methods. One of the most common active corrosion mitigation techniques in refineries is the use of corrosion inhibitors. Film-forming corrosion inhibitors create a protective layer that can be influenced by different flow characteristics and flow regimes. These changes in hydrodynamic conditions have an effect on the performance of corrosion inhibitors. This work focuses on the fundamental understanding of the hydrodynamics of the system coupled with analysis of the corrosion behavior using electrochemical techniques. The objective of this research is to study the influence of different flow parameters on the efficiency of corrosion inhibitors under corrosive environments such as CO2.

Edna MendezPh.D., Chemical Engineering

12

Development of a Tool for Pipeline Risk Assessment

Pipelines are considered as the most efficient mode of transportation for various chemicals, due to their safety and economic advantages. However, pipeline incidents remain a persistent factor, exposing the industry to scrutiny. From 1996-2015, the number of pipeline incidents were approximately 250 per year on average, according to PHMSA. This has resulted in a loss of more than $3.42 billion, implying that a problem exists and should be addressed more efficiently and meticulously.

Traditional and conventional risk assessment tools have limited capabilities of quantifying risk in terms of time dependency. Therefore, it has become crucial to focus research on a real time detailed risk assessment of pipelines that can better help to visualize risk and make decisions for subsequent mitigation and prevention of risk. This thesis is aimed at developing a tool for a more robust and accurate risk assessment, considering the dynamic nature of pipeline factors. It is also based on converting a bow-tie model to a dynamic Bayesian network. By doing so, data can be easily updated, changes in variables with time can be observed and more robust risk assessment results can be obtained. This also lets us utilize other advantages of the Bayesian network like obtaining both forward and backward inferences of probabilities, flexibility in data accuracy, and better representation of a cause-effect relationship.

Visalatchi PalaniappanM.S., Safety Engineering

Optimization of CO2 Removal Process in Natural Gas for LNG Production

Carbon dioxide in natural gas is the main focus of this project. The composition of carbon dioxide in natural gas varies depending on the source. However, most natural gas contains excess carbon dioxide, which may cause freezing or corrosion in pipelines and process equipment. Several incidents happened in the past. Therefore, before liquefying natural gas into LNG, carbon dioxide should be removed. There are several processes that can be used to capture carbon dioxide, for example amine absorption, pressure swing adsorption, and membrane separation. The first objective of this project is to find the corrosion rate and the clathrate formation (freezing) that is acceptable by using simulation programs such as CFD. Then determine the maximum concentration of carbon dioxide in the final product using the acceptable rate given. The final objective is to select the most suitable process economically to achieve this maximum concentration. By using simulation tools such as ASPEN Plus or ASPEN HYSYS, the amount of money spent on each process can be acquired. Comparison between the processes can be done afterwards to find the most cost effective process.

Andrew NapapornM.S., Chemical Engineering

Date-based Semi-Automatic Hazard Identification (DAHAZID) for more Comprehensive Identification of Hazardous Scenarios

This study attempts to ascertain the drawbacks of existing HAZID tools so that a new HAZID methodology, data-based, semi-automatic hazard identification (DAHAZID), is proposed. This DAHAZID seeks to identify possible scenarios with a semi-automatic and systemic approach. Based on the two traditional HAZID tools, Hazard Operability study (HAZOP) and Failure Mode, Effects, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA), the new method will minimize the limitations of each method. Additionally, rather than depending on the HAZID tools to achieve the connectivity of the process system, this study considers connections with other new technologies in advance. Then, this method can be integrated with proper guidelines regarding process design and safety analysis. To examine its usefulness, DAHAZID has been applied to two case studies, and one of the outcomes was compared to the actual result, performed previously by a traditional HAZOP methodology. Sunhwa Park

Ph.D., Chemical Engineering

13

Systematic Analysis of Spontaneously Combustible Substances

Although spontaneously combustible substances (like some peroxides) have been used extensively in most chemical industries, there is a need to provide methodologies for the safer handling of these chemicals. The same properties that make a chemical hazardous also make it useful. Thus, a systematic approach to handle these types of chemicals with an individual hazard review, consequence analysis, and risk assessment will help us understand these materials better. This research is aimed at identifying the best practices for handling spontaneously combustible materials.

Abhishek ProddutoorM.S., Safety Engineering

Integration of Electron Impedance Spectroscopy and Microfluidics for Investigating Microbially Influenced Corrosion Using Co-Culture Biofilms

Microorganisms can carry out corrosion reactions on metal surfaces resulting in microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC). MIC is a significant problem in the oil and gas, water pipelines and tanks and costed about $460 billion globally in 2013. MIC has been extensively studied using batch reactors or large scale circulating loops. Both suffer from nutrient limitation and do not correctly represent the MIC environment. Thus, a small-scale continuous flow system that better represents flowing conditions for studying MIC is desirable.

A microfluidics-based flow system, consisting of microscale flow channels in a manner similar to pipelines where MIC is a major concern, is an attractive alternative. We developed a microfluidic flow cell by coating a pair of metal electrodes on glass. A microfluidic channel placed on this electrode pair allows corrosive microbes to be cultured on metal. This configuration allows MIC to be directly monitored using electrochemical impedance between the two electrodes while visualizing microbial community growth using confocal microscopy. Thus, this microfluidic MIC model enables integration of microbe-driven corrosion mechanisms along with microbial community growth at the metal surface.

Susmitha Purnima Kotu

Ph.D., Chemical Engineering

Investigation into Pre-ignition Turbulence in Dust Explosion Testing

Pre-ignition turbulence generated in the dust explosion testing vessels affects the estimation of explosion characteristics such as the deflagration index and maximum explosion pressure. The current ASTM standards specify the usage of certain nozzle types for achieving spatially uniform distribution for all dust types and a specific time delay window is used for testing which may not cover 700 plus dusts classified as combustible in various industries. This research focuses on measuring the pre-ignition turbulence, impacts of turbulence created by standard nozzle types on dust-air mixing and effects of these phenomena on explosion characteristics. The research takes an unconventional route of using computational fluid dynamics to investigate turbulence. The main goal of this research is to develop a virtual platform for performing dust dispersion that could improve the current standards when used in conjunction with explosion testing procedures.

Bharatvaaj RaviM.S., Chemical Engineering

14

Incorporation of Process Safety in Design and Optimization of Hazardous Chemical Supply Chain Networks

Supply chain network design and optimization is very important in decision making, which gives the power to stakeholders to assess the gigantic supply chains to increase profit while minimizing risks. Risks in supply chains arise from various sources (e.g., demands, supply). One of the important sources is the supply chain disruptions caused by chemical and process hazards during the transportation, manufacturing and storage of chemicals. Quantification of chemical and process hazard is necessary in decision making and is one of the challenges faced by the chemical process industry. Moreover, due to the complexities of the process and limited understanding of the chemicals, the risk and hazards posed are uncertain in nature. This study proposes to develop a novel framework of multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) and analyzing supply chain network design and process safety holistically while accounting for the uncertainties. The supply chain formulation used is a mixed integer linear programming model with a case study in ammonia supply chain. Various scenario simulations have been performed to study the variation of hazard and risk with supply chain reliability.

Nitin RoyPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Safety in Design of Heat Transfer Systems

With the use of heat transfer fluids in heat transfer systems the risk of fire is always present due to the presence of fuel, air and ignition source. In addition, the presence of foreign contaminants can increase the rate of thermal degradation of HTF or lead to mechanical failures of these systems. The goals of the research include understanding these systems, the properties of HTFs, the existing safety practices and the identification of associated hazards to work toward developing an inherently safer design of heat transfer systems.

Richa SarkarM.S., Safety Engineering

Process Safety Implementation in Textile Industry

The textile industry is characterized by fiber-to-yarn-to-fabric production, pretreatment, dyeing, printing and finishing treatments. These complex systems entail the presence of a wide variety of processes, raw materials, machines, transport systems and storage sites, which are prone to hazards. This research is intended to identify the process hazards in the existing textile industries, correlating them with the earlier incidents and to suggest efficient predictive/preventive programs for safer operation.

Sankhadeep SarkarM.S., Safety Engineering

15

Study of Adiabatic Calorimeter Variability

Adiabatic calorimetry is a reliable technique to obtain both thermodynamic and kinetic parameters of a reactive chemical. The APTAC and ARC are popular types of adiabatic calorimeters for evaluating these parameters. Consistent and reliable thermal hazard assessment is critical for the design and control of industrial processes, which contain thermal hazards from reactive chemicals. However, there is often variability between the values reported in literature for various calorimeters and between laboratories. Often this believed to be due to age, contamination, improper reagent preparation, passivation, incorrect thermocouple calibration, or non-adiabatic conditions and heat loss. This research study will examine the potential differences between the results reported for various calorimeters.

Jyoti SharmaM.S., Safety Engineering

Thermal Stability Analysis of Benzoyl Peroxide

This research is a comprehensive study of the runaway behavior of a benzoyl peroxide (BPO) hybrid system using isothermal and adiabatic calorimeters. The aim of this research is the advancement of understanding of thermal decomposition of BPO under various conditions. More specifically, this research will systematically study and develop thermodynamic and kinetic parameters related to BPO, and further the use of this particular knowledge to mitigate the risks in storage, transportation and manufacturing process.

Yueqi ShenPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Quantifying Ease of Control for Inherently Safer Design

The most cost-effective approach to prevent incidents is to add process design features to prevent hazardous situations, rather than having to rely on mitigative or emergency response measures to deal with process upsets once they occur. This is the fundamental principle behind inherent safety. However, process control systems are ubiquitous and necessary to maintain control over the process once it is put into operation. Furthermore, it is known that the ability of the process control system to maintain control over the design depends on the design itself. A more accurate assessment of safety can be obtained in the early design stages by integrating inherently safer process design with an understanding of the ease by which the design can be controlled, also known as its “ease of control.” This research seeks to create an index that will quantify the inherent safety of the process design and its ease of control. This index will be used to compare the inherent safety of different chemical processes, and how changes to the design can impair or improve the ease of control.

Yang-Denis Su-FeherPh.D., Chemical Engineering

16

Scale up of Reaction with Runaway Potential

Thermal runaway reactions may cause severe fire and explosion incidents. The 2007 T2 Laboratories Inc. explosion in Jacksonville, Florida, is one example, which was caused by a runaway chemical reaction and cooling system failure. Often when dealing with a chemical reaction with thermal runaway potential on a small-scale, the reactions can be controlled. However, when it comes to industry large-scale operations, safety issues are critical. This research is aimed at studying, experimentally and theoretically, chemical reactions with thermal runaway potential and the thermal and kinetic behavior of different chemical reactions at different scales. The findings will be used to provide a better understanding for scale-up of chemical reactions with runaway potential and to propose measures for reducing the risk of a thermal runaway.

Yue SunPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Developing Leading Indicators Framework for Predicting and Preventing Offshore Blowouts

Leading indicators are effective organizational tools that can identify vulnerabilities in a risk management system and predict potential process safety events. Offshore drilling operations and well activities have always been very challenging due to technological and operational complexities, and it is quite difficult to develop well specified risk indicators for these high risk operations. This research work aims to develop a leading risk indicators model for offshore drilling and other well activities (e.g., workover) to predict gas kicks and possible blowout scenarios. Upon analyzing different guidelines and drilling practices, a comprehensive categorization of leading indicators is proposed considering the complexities of the drilling and well activities. This work proposes a cause-based approach to develop sets of leading indicators for different categories and organizational levels. Leading indicators are divided into two broad sections: real-time indicators and long-term organizational safety performance indicators. With the real-time indicators, different decision support algorithms are developed that would help to understand a kick progression scenario effectively. Probabilistic models are developed for evaluating the relative importance of different leading indicators and assessing their impact on the key causal factors of primary well control barriers. This work continues to build a comprehensive risk model combining real-time indicators with operational and organizational aspects to predict and prevent blowout incidents.

Nafiz TamimPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Flare Radiation Criteria and Flare Design

This research will look at flare radiation criteria and development of generalized methodology for flare design. During the design of flares, facilities meet the flare radiation criteria, but vendors only provide data for thermal radiation from the flare and discount the effect of solar radiation. This research will look at bridging this gap. A general practice can be simply adding the maximum incident solar radiation to thermal radiation from the flare, but the results will not be accurate. To improve upon this conservative approach, the geometric configuration factor and environmental conditions that affect the contribution of solar radiation to the overall radiation from flare will be considered. Another area to be analyzed is with regards to the fact that the sun and the flame emit radiation over different bands of wavelength.

Ankita TanejaM.S., Chemical Engineering

17

Integrated Framework for Process Intensification with Safety, Control and Operability

Process intensification technologies are promising tools to create the next generation of modular, intensified and innovative manufacturing technologies and processes. Despite the increasing interests in the field of process intensification from both industry and academia, the development of a systematic approach for intensified designs is still in its incipient stage. Challenges include the large set of feasible process intensification options, proper criteria to evaluate the controllability and reliability of a novel process technology and accurate risk assessment with lack of precedent, etc. With the aid of modeling and simulation tools, this research aims to promote an integrated framework for process intensification incorporating safety, control and operability.

Yuhe TianPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Reactor Inherently Safer Design by Process Intensification

Traditional batch or better, semi-batch-wise pharmaceutical production often involves thermally unstable and/or toxic reactants, products or intermediates, all possibly subject to highly exothermic runaway reactions. Semi-batch synthesis in two-phase liquid systems often requires significant human intervention along with complex procedures. Evidently, it has significant drawbacks in terms of both safety and efficiency. Performing the reaction in a more efficient and inherently safer manner, with higher selectivity toward the final product, would be desirable. Current research is focused on changeover from batch to continuous reactor, which would offer better temperature control and a smaller volume of chemicals under thermal runaway potential. The novel reactor will be operated in a continuous way where the amount of thermally unstable reactants is greatly reduced. Therefore, operators can reduce the potential runaway incident consequences. It is also a more economical manufacturing technique. Jingyao Wang

Ph.D., Chemical Engineering

Weak Signal Detection Using Data Mining Techniques

Data mining is a process used to explore patterns and extract useful information from big databases. It has been widely used in business and marketing for many years, and it is becoming even more widely used in the field of engineering. In contrast to some data giants, such as Amazon and Google, that treat data as high-value assets, process industries collect massive operation data from sensors, but this data is seldom explored deeply or is only analyzed after incidents occur. However, incidents do have an incubation period during which events develop and accumulate without being detected. Some of the events are called weak signals since they are difficult to recognize, but they are early indications for incidents. Thus, the goal of the research is to apply data mining techniques in process industry to detect weak signals, so that corrective actions can be taken and prevent incidents.

Mengxi YuPh.D., Chemical Engineering

18

Aerosol Generation and Combustion Study

The hazard related to high flash point liquid is usually ignored because there is a misunderstanding that liquid cannot be ignited below its flash point. However, this is not true when the liquid is in aerosol form. Several incidents indicate that high flash point liquid can be ignited below its flash point when it is an aerosol. In this study, the method used to generate aerosol is electrospray, which applies a high intensive electric field to break the liquid into small droplets. A laser detector measures the size and volumetric concentration of the droplets. The flammability of the aerosol is determined by whether the aerosol cloud can be ignited by a propane flame. When the aerosol cloud is ignited, a flame will appear and move upward. This phenomenon is used to characterize the consequence of the combustion. Open source CFD software is applied to simulate the process including aerosol generation, ignition and combustion. The models use an Eulerian method to describe the gas phase behavior and use a Lagrangian method to describe the liquid droplet movement. The two phases are coupled by an evaporation model and dispersion model. The simulation method may provide a consequence analysis method to estimate the region that will be affected by aerosol combustion.

Shuai YuanPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Analysis of Thermal Runaway Hazards of Polymerization Systems

Polymerization reactions are highly exothermic in nature. The polymerization process is one of the industrial processes most frequently involved in thermal runaway incidents. According to Barton and Nolan (1989), 64 out of 134 runaway incidents from 1962-87 in the United Kingdom were polymerization processes. The United States Chemical Safety Board’s reactive chemical report (2001) revealed that about 15 percent of reactive chemical incidents from 1998-2001 were caused by polymerization thermal runaway reactions, resulting in a total of 26 fatalities and tremendous financial losses. In spite of the enormous industrial application and potential risk of the polymerization process, very little effort has been directed in identifying adiabatic runaway hazards of polymerization. This study will focus on identifying and evaluating thermal stability and runaway behavior of crucial components (monomer, initiator and solvent) in the polymerization process using calorimetry. The aim of this research is to integrate various calorimetry results and kinetic models to determine the safety operation envelope of the polymerization process.

Lin ZhaoPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Sour Gas Dispersion Modeling

Heavy gases, such as hydrogen sulfide and chlorine, are hazardous materials that maximize the dangerous effects on nearby people and the ecosystem, because the gases tend to travel near the ground, where wind speed decreases and gases dilute slowly. Heavy gas dispersion models are crucial to provide decision makers with quick assessment of potential impacts as well as land-use planning. Many heavy gas models are available, but some of them may not be fully validated against experimental data in complex situations. DEnse GAs DISpersion (DEGADIS) and CFD models are widely used in current industries. However, they both have their limitations: the DEGADIS model cannot consider different wind directions and varying wind speeds, while CFD models generally take a large amount of time for one scenario simulation. More importantly, the near-field (within 100 meters) results obtained from the DEGADIS model are conservative, with predictions being two to five times larger than the experimental data, whereas CFD models sometimes underestimate the results. We need to overcome the disadvantages of current models. The objective of this research is to develop a semi-empirical mathematics equation to estimate hydrogen sulfide gas concentration profile in the near field. The proposed model will consider obstacles, varying wind speed and humidity.

Jiayong ZhuPh.D., Chemical Engineering

19

Thermal Risk Analysis of Nitro Aromatic Compounds in the Presence of Other Chemicals

Mononitrotoluene (MNT) is a typical nitro aromatic compound used in the production of dyes, rubber chemicals, flexible foams and agricultural chemicals. However, incident history demonstrates inadequate recognition and evaluation of reactive hazards of nitro aromatic compounds. Advance reactive system screening tool (ARSST) and automatic pressure tracking adiabatic calorimeter (APTAC) have been used to experimentally study this reaction in order to better understand the mechanisms that result in the explosion of MNT. Key parameters such as “onset” temperature, “onset” pressure, self-heat rate and pressure rate are reported. The effect of certain additives has been screened and kinetics of the reaction has been developed. All of the related hazard-information in this study helps to determine safer operation conditions for handling, storage and transportation of MNT in the chemical process industry.

Wen ZhuPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Subsea Gas Release Consequence Modeling

Subsea gas releases can result from different causes including blowouts from oil and gas wells, drilling operations, leakage from transport pipelines or malfunction of subsea processing equipment. Subsea releases will result in the dispersion of the hydrocarbon as it rises to the sea surface leading to potentially catastrophic impacts on human life, the environment and offshore installations. Consequence analysis provides quantitative information on the risk and potential hazards that could be caused by these events. Although many models have been developed for subsea releases, these models present limitations for representing underwater plume turbulences, gas dissolution and high flowrates environment. In addition, phenomena like hydrates formation, bubble size distributions and releases containing toxic gases like hydrogen sulfide (H2S) have not received much attention. The objective of this research is to develop a comprehensive CFD based model for subsea gas releases. Moustafa Ali

M.S., Chemical Engineering

Modeling of a Gas Release from Underground Pipeline

Buried pipelines are commonly used for transporting natural gas. Any failure due to corrosion or breakage of the pipe might lead to a gas leak, which can cause significant human and physical damage. Many models are available for gas dispersion into the atmosphere, but not as many are available for underground gas leak. The modeling of such cases heavily depends on the flow mechanism of the gas through the soil. Thus, it is important to understand and model different types of flow mechanisms, in order to effectively design for prevention and mitigation, as well as to prepare for emergency response. The objective of this research is to model gas releases from underground pipelines by focusing on the gas release rates on soil displacement, and the effect of the orifice orientation of the leak.

Ibrahim Lokmane Daoudi

M.S., Chemical Engineering

MKOPSC - Qatar

20

Understanding and Improving Evacuation Models for H2S Gas Releases

In order to achieve a comprehensive risk management plan, an estimate of evacuation times in the case of a toxic release is necessary. There are many tools available for estimating evacuation times, however, the majority of them do not take into account the psychological, sociological and physical effects induced in the evacuees during evacuation, which may lead to inaccurate predictions. The aim of this project is to introduce dosage related physical and psychological effects induced in the evacuees to simulate more realistic evacuation scenarios. This research will be focused on finding an appropriate dose-response model for H2S, which will include the different symptoms experienced during an H2S exposure in an environment where the toxic gas concentration is continuously varying with time. The developed dose response model will be applied in the evacuation model. The model will be tested for different release scenarios.

Shaikh M. NawaydM.S., Chemical Engineering

Modeling of LNG Pool Spreading on Land

The first stage of consequence modelling of liquefied natural gas (LNG) releases, also known as source-term modelling, is determining the release mode and the release rate of the hazardous materials. LNG is flammable, cryogenic and poses asphyxiation risks. The model is useful for scenarios such as the leakage of LNG from pumps, pipes and storage tanks in LNG facilities. While many models have been developed for LNG vapor cloud dispersion, its source-term models have not received as much attention. Experimental data for LNG spills on land is highly limited and mostly at small-scale. Current source-term models of LNG releases have only been validated against such data. The objective is to develop a source-term model that takes into account the effect of vaporization and conduction heat transfer during the spreading of an LNG pool on land. Large-scale liquid nitrogen spills will be conducted to validate the model.

Nisa UlumuddinM.S., Chemical Engineering

Study of Polyethylene Dust and Sulfur Dust Explosion Characteristics

In a finely divided form, a combustible solid material suspended in air can, under certain conditions, present an explosion hazard. Over the last decades, many incidents in the process industries involving combustible dusts (e.g., chemicals, food, fertilizer, plastics metal processing) have demonstrated that dust explosions can have catastrophic consequences including fatalities, severe injuries, damage to facilities, disruption of businesses and major financial losses. This research will include an experimental and theoretical study of polyethylene and sulfur dust explosions including the study of the influence of particle size distribution, dust concentration and humidity on explosion behavior properties. This research also includes looking at the applicability of current dust models to both polyethylene and sulfur dust explosions. These explosion behavior properties would provide information in designing both preventive and protective measures in processes which use polyethylene or sulfur dust. Mohamed Kazmi

M.S., Safety Engineering

21

A Novel Approach of Large-Scale Synthesis and Assembly of Nanostructured Materials

Large-scale synthesis and assembly of nanomaterials (e.g., nanowires) is one of the major challenges of commercial applications of nanotechnology. For instance, zinc phosphide (Zn3P2) nanowires, which are synthesized on a zinc foil and manually scraped from the substrate, contain an appreciable amount of bulk zinc metal when they are assembled into a pellet form by hydraulic press. This results in loss in quantity of Zn3P2 nanowires and reduction in performance of the device. Herein, a simple approach to synthesizing a bulk-scale assembly of Zn3P2 nanowires is developed. In this method, a zinc pellet with sacrificial salt is directly converted to a Zn3P2 nanowire pellet. This technology can be applied to other types of nanomaterials and allows the assembly of nanostructured materials into bulk form without introducing any byproduct.

Yixi ChenPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Nanowires for Thermoelectric Applications

Nanowires, one-dimensional crystals with diameters less than 100 nm, can be used in the fabrication of a wide variety of devices, including thermoelectrics. Thermoelectrics could be a viable source of clean energy because of their ability to produce electricity not only from solar thermal energy, but also from waste heat generated in automobiles and process industries. The lack of moving parts makes them both safer and inexpensive to operate. However, these generators currently operate at very low efficiencies. Use of nanowires (e.g., silicon or magnesium nanowires) in the fabrication of thermoelectrics is expected to enhance their efficiencies tremendously. Such innovation impacts not only impacts terrestrial energy generation and use chain as mentioned earlier, but also space related research. The latter is owed to the fact that these devices can be used to reliably power probes in deep space, where photovoltaic cells are ineffective.

Ali AzharPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Faculty Fellows Program

The Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center has identified a group of faculty with expertise in various fields of research—Industrial Psychology, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, School of Public Health—in order to better serve all stakeholders. Students in the Faculty Fellows Program are involved in important safety-related research efforts supported by the center.

Steady-state and Dynamic Analysis of N-oxidation of Alkylpyridines by Hydrogen Peroxide in a CSTR

The present work aims at identifying hazards of the reaction of N-oxidation of alkylpyridines by hydrogen peroxide in a CSTR from the perspective of the multiplicity of steady states and the dynamics of the reacting system, and proposing an inherently safer and more efficient reactor configuration of thermally coupling the exothermic reaction of the N-oxidation of alkylpyridines by hydrogen peroxide with a selected endothermic reaction in the same volume to achieve reactive cooling effect, that is, the enthalpy released by the exothermic reaction is recovered in the chemical bonds of the endothermic reaction products. Furthermore, the benefits of the design would be verified and compared by proper risk and economic assessment methods.

Xiaohong CuiPh.D., Chemical Engineering

22

Decision Support System for Abnormal Situation Management

Modern industrial plants have thousands of sensors deployed in the field connected to the control system units such as distributed control systems (DCS), programmable logic controllers (PLC), and emergency shutdown systems (ESD) for routine operations. In addition, due to the ease in configuring alarms in control systems in the past few decades, the number of alarms in plants has increased significantly. This has resulted in decreased system performance and additional workload on operators, which worsens during an abnormal situation. In this research, it is assumed that the alarm rationalization process has been completed by the organization and that the number of alarms during normal operations is under manageable conditions. However, the alarm flood condition still occurs during an abnormal or upset state. This research is focused on making a decision support system for the operators using data-driven methodologies. Such a system will improve early detection, prediction of abnormal situation and provide assistance in decision making for the operators during abnormal operations. The process includes data acquisition, data mining and analysis, generating information from the available datasets and creation of a smart dashboard to provide details to the operator. The resultant proactive system would ensure safer, reliable and productive operations.

Pankaj GoelPh.D., Electrical and Computer

Engineering

Quantifiable Fatigue Risk Assessment through Activity Recognition

Fatigue affects millions of Americans every year and chronic fatigue is a contributor to many health issues. Oilfield workers endure long, physically and cognitively demanding shifts, which are known to deteriorate their health and quality of life. Oil companies acknowledge this challenge, and currently use fatigue survey assessments. However, the development of a modern fatigue risk assessment tailored to this type of worker is necessary. An algorithm to classify activities and a person’s heart rate variability through the day track fatigue throughout the day is a solution for this. To develop the algorithm, tri-axial accelerometer data and physiological parameters have been collected for several participants. An application in mobile health is possible through the integration of this activity classification algorithm into smartwatches and smartphones. The mobile application can know what activity the user is doing and indicate when the person should seek rest in order to prevent fatigue. The mobile application would also indicate when it is adequate for the person to return to activity.

Karla GonzalezPh.D., Industrial and Systems

Engineering

Counterfactual Thinking and Safety Behavior

Workplace safety has been receiving increasing attention by both researchers and organizations, as it is a source of substantial costs to organizations. Incidents may result in bodily injuries and property damage. One individual factor that may be responsible for incidents is safety behavior. Little is known about how individual mental models influence safety behaviors and the mechanism of such relationships. The current study aims to examine the impact of one kind of mental thought, counterfactual thinking, on safety behavior and several important predictors of safety behavior (e.g., safety knowledge and safety motivation) proposed as explanatory mechanisms for this association. This study will provide important evidence regarding the underlying mechanisms explaining why counterfactual thinking promotes safety behavior.

Yimin HeM.S., Psychology

23

Enhancing Resilience of a Large-Scale Emergency Operations System

Emergency response systems must inevitably cope with complex and unexperienced disruptions. The failure of emergency operations often leads to catastrophic outcomes as seen in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown (2012), Macondo well blowout (2012) and Hurricane Katrina (2005). In order to support emergency response organizations in effectively responding to various disruptions, the principles of resilience engineering are employed in this study. Resilience is a system’s capability to flexibly maintain its performance and to quickly bounce back from perturbations with minimum loss. A resilient system not only recovers rapidly from disruptions, but also monitors the current status, anticipates future events and learns from past experiences. To understand and improve these system behaviors, large-scale multi-jurisdictional emergency operation training is observed, recorded and analyzed. In particular, the following measurement of resilient performance is defined and applied in emergency operations systems: adaptive response, rapidity of response, resource utilization, performance stability and team situation awareness. Upon this measurement, interventions in system designs and decision making processes to enhance resilience of the emergency operations system are generated and attempted.

Changwon SonPh.D., Industrial and Systems

Engineering

Burning Velocity of Suspended Dust Mixtures

Finding fundamental properties, such as flammability limits and burning velocity, of flammable gases, combustible dust and fire suppressants is vital in preventing manufacturing incidents. Here, laminar burning velocity is measured in a spherically expanding flame method by using a schlieren system, in conjunction with a high-speed camera and a large optical access, to capture the propagation of the flame front as it progresses from a small flame kernel. Having a large optical access allows additional non-intrusive optical measurements to be performed, such as laser-induced fluorescence, direct absorption spectroscopy and measuring aerosol concentration using laser extinction. The information obtained in these studies is invaluable in advancing modern combustion knowledge, and in doing so prevent future industrial catastrophes.

Travis SikesPh.D., Mechanical Engineering

Mitigation Methods for Accidental Offshore Oil Spillages

When oil is spilled offshore, like the BP Deepwater Horizon incident, the remote location’s harsh conditions may make the oil spill response difficult. However, the weathering effect and evaporation can be slowed down due to extreme temperature and pressure. In the open water region, the spilled oil could spread much quicker due to gravity, wind, current and wave effects, which would hinder the mitigation process. After evaluation of the oil spill situation and deciding to remove the spilled oil, the countermeasures generally include mechanical recovery, using oil herders for in-situ burning and dispersant to facilitate biodegradation. All of these countermeasures are large challenges for engineers to clean up the ocean effectively and efficiently.

We are developing a biodegradable herder formula based on Konjac powder to increase the crude oil clean up ratio. The herder/cosurfactant formula is easily applicable in terms of effectiveness, cost and nontoxic nature. Future work can be focused on improving oil absorption rate for sponges, possibly through minimizing the pore size of the sponge to maximize capillary absorption.

Lecheng ZhangPh.D., Chemical Engineering

Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety CenterRoom 200, Jack E. Brown Engineering Building

Texas A&M University, 3122 TAMUCollege Station, TX, 77843-3122

979.845.3489(f) 979.458.1493

mkopsc@tamu.edu

psc.tamu.edu