Fundamental Research at Purdue Process Safety Research Center

Fundamental Research at Purdue Process Safety Research Center

Significant industrial incidents continue to occur such as fires, explosions and gas releases resulting in serious injuries, loss of life, and damage to the environment and facilities.  Such incidents are not solely germane to the oil & gas industry, but occur in a wide variety of industries including agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing.  Two years ago the ‘Purdue Process Safety and Assurance Center’ (P2SAC) was established within the School of Chemical Engineering to conduct fundamental research to prevent such incidents. The presentation will address the four research projects the Center is currently pursuing with funding from its initial Sponsors: BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Honeywell, Eli Lilly and Shell.

The initial projects include:

- optimal placement of gas detectors to prevent fires and explosions:  the research uses CFD-based dispersion simulations and rigorous mathematics to perform optimal placement over hundreds of thousands of leak scenarios and potential detector locations.

- design & synthesis of catalysts to prevent undesired hazardous byproducts: zeolite catalysts are widely used in the refining industry and certain structures can promote undesired byproducts leading to potential over-pressures and explosions. Zeolite synthesis and characterization methods are being developed.          

- real time process optimization to reduce risk: Novel continuous manufacturing processes can reduce the risk related to powder handling. Continuous manufacturing, as with pharmaceuticals, requires efficient process monitoring and control.

- application of inherently safer separation technology to significantly reduce processing volume, solvent use, and extent of unit operations. Advanced mixed solvent extraction & simulated moving bed techniques are used to recover polycarbonates and flame retardants from plastic waste.   

 

Indirect benefits from the Center are the depth of the core Chemical Process Safety course required of all undergraduates, as well as undergraduate process safety research initiatives in such as areas as dusts, reactive chemicals and nano-materials.

Current focus is on growing the Center and encouraging participation by a wide variety of industries such as pharmaceuticals, agriculture and manufacturing, in addition to oil & gas, and chemicals. 

10-13-16