Chemical Hazards: Toxicology & Reactivity

Overview

Class Central Tips

This course aims to provide process safety experience for engineers, particularly relevant to chemical engineering but applicable to any field involving process operations. This course introduces you to the important, practical, value-added skills and information that will aid your career, or preparation for a career, in chemical process engineering. These skills include improving your ability to identify and quantify toxic chemical hazards and be able to identify and mitigate scenarios where reactive chemical hazards are present. You will be able to describe the importance of pressure protection and the general process for pressure relief system design all while using lessons learned from past chemical process incidents to inform the implementation of safer solutions and work practices.

Syllabus

Getting Started & The Importance of Understanding Chemical Hazards

After this module, you will be able to define industrial health and hygiene including important regulatory agencies. You'll be able to describe chemical hazards and the importance of understanding these hazards. You will be able to describe how chemical reactions, when not managed properly, can result in catastrophic scenarios. Finally, you will be able to use the Globally Harmonized System (GHS) for Safety Data Sheets and Labels as well as the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) diamond.

Toxicology

After this module, you will be able to define, discuss, and use exposure limits such as threshold limit value (TLV) and permissible exposure limit (PEL). You will be able to describe effects of toxicants and quantify impact of exposure using dose versus response curves. You will be able to describe control techniques to prevent exposures, as well as use lessons from past chemical process safety incidents to inform the implementation of solutions and work practices.

Reactive Chemical Hazards

After this module, you will be able to identify processes and situations where reactive chemical hazards are likely to be present. You will be able to create and use a chemical compatibility matrix. And finally, you will be able to describe how to use calorimeter data to characterize chemical reactions.

Pressure Relief

At the end of this module, you will be able to explain the importance of pressure protection and define key terms related to pressure relief devices. You will be able to identify major classes of relief devices and be able to describe options for handling relief effluent. Finally, you'll be able to describe the general process for relief system design.