ChBE 4140 - Chemical Process Safety

Fall 2018
Lecture: MWF 8:00 to 8:50 AM
EMan 103

Instructor: Dr. Douglas K. Ludlow TA:

Bertelsmeyer 210M, Campus Support Facility G3B (primary office)
Phone: 341-6477 or 341 - 4557
E-mail: dludlow@mst.edu

Office Hours: I will have office hours on Monday and Tuesday from 3:00 to 4:30 pm at the Student Success
Center 198 Toomey Hall. You may schedule a visit via S&T Connect on the Canvas page. Students who drop
into office hours are always welcome, but priority will be given to students with an appointment. I will make
every effort to respond to email within one business day.

Text: Chemical Process Safety: Fundamentals with Applications, 3rd Edition

Daniel A. Crowl, Joseph F. Louvar

Course Objectives: The goal of this course is to teach the students the fundamental principles associated
with Chemical Process Safety and Loss Prevention. Process Safety differs from Personnel Safety (or Industrial
Hygiene), in that it is concerned primarily with the identification of potential hazards and hazardous conditions
associated with the processes and equipment involved in the Chemical Process Industries, and methods of
predicting the possible severity of these hazards and preventing, controlling or mitigating them. As such, it is
necessary to understand the operation of these processes and the equipment, and to apply sound engineering
fundamentals to the analysis and prediction of performance, under adverse circumstances. Thus, the course
emphasizes quantitative engineering analysis, based upon the applications of mass and energy balances, fluid
mechanics of liquid, gas, and two-phase flows, heat transfer and the conservation of energy, mass transfer,
diffusion and dispersion under highly variable conditions, reaction kinetics, process control, and statistics.

Grading: ChBE 4140 is designated as a “Communication Emphasized” course and thus much of the grade
depends on written assignments and oral presentations (via video).
Exam 1 (Chp 1-6) 100 pts
Exam 2 (Chp 6-12) 100 pts
Comprehensive Final 150 pts
On-line Quizzes & in class problems 50 pts
SAChE Certificates 50 pts
Group Project:
Literature review 50 pts
Case Study Report (first draft) 50 pts
Peer Review-Case-Study Report 50 pts
Final Case Study Report 200 pts
Case-Study Video 100 pts
Case-Study Video Quizzes 100 pts

Exams: Two Exams will be given in class. In total, the tests are worth 20% of the course grade. The tests
may involve both knowledge-based questions (e.g., fill in the blank, essay, multiple choice) and problem solving
skills (e.g., numerical solution). The tests will be closed book and you will also be allowed one 8.5x11 crib
sheet. The exams will be based on the material in the chapters and homework covered prior to each exam.
Because of the nature of the material covered, each test may seem to be cumulative. The final will be
comprehensive. The final is worth 15% of the course grade. No make-up exams will be given.

Homework: On the agenda there are recommended Homework assignments associated with most lectures.
These problems are assigned from the textbook and are assigned to help you develop your analytical and
problem-solving skills. It is acceptable to work together on homework. Since the textbook hasn’t changed in
years; since there are numerous “files” of the homework in the fraternities and sororities; and because many of
you will find solution manuals available on the internet, I will not be grading the homework nor giving credit
for doing it. You should do the homework to help prepare for the exams. If you do not have access to a
solutions key, and want to check your solutions you can see me during my office hours.

On-line Quizzes and In-class Assignment: There will be some PP presentations that you will review on-
line on your own time. Often times these occur when Dr. Ludlow is on scheduled travel. On the schedule it
clearly states when there will be no class held and you will do the on-line quizzes. There are certain topics that
are covered on on-line PP and quizzes that will occur even though there will be a lecture on that date. Again the
Schedule clearly shows this. There are a few in-class assignments that you will need to submit via CANVAS.
All together the on-line quizzes and in-class assignments are worth 50 points (5% of the course grade).

SAChE Certificate: There are online safety training/certification that is available through SAChE
(http://sache.org/student_certificate_program.asp). The password for S&T students to access the certificate
program is JoeMiner (case sensitive). There are numerous different on-line training sessions you can
participate in and receive a certificate. I want you to complete at least five (5) of the certificates of your
choosing and you will receive 10 points for each one completed (up to 5 SAChE certificates). You can
complete all of the certificates, but I will only allow credit for up to five. Several of you may have already
completed one or more of these. When you complete the on-line training and receive the certificate, then just
submit a copy on Canvas. The link on Canvas it is on the top right hand banner.

Term Project Team: The first thing you will need to do is to organize into project group/teams to work on
the term project. Each group will have three members. It is important that you form a group with those with
whom you can work well since 30% of your grade will be tied to the performance of the group! Please join a
group on Canvas before the due date. If you do not self-select group membership, then Dr. Ludlow will assign
you to a team.
The motivation for forming homework teams is two fold. First, numerous studies have shown that
“collaborative learning” (i.e. working as a group) is the most effective way to learn material. Second, as you
move on to the industrial working world, you will find that most engineering projects are group projects and that
you need to learn to work with people in a group or team setting. However, often in industry you usually do not
get a chance to choose your own group members. I want to stress that the purpose of the working in teams is
not so much to “spread the work around”, but instead to enable each team member to learn and benefit from the
knowledge and perspective of others.
This assignment will be a major activity for your team during the semester and it will consist of several
activities. The objective of the group project is give you the opportunity to apply the knowledge that you have
gained from class to a case-study of an accident that has occurred in the last ten years (2007 or later) and to
share your insights with the rest of the class. One of the best ways to learn about safety is to learn from the past.
Thus, case histories of past mishaps make an excellent learning tool if we analyze what went wrong and how it
could have been prevented.
There is a separate document that goes through all of the various parts of the term project and you should
refer to it for the details of the semester long project. Each part is also located on CANVAS.

Extra Credit: The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is the professional organization of
chemical engineers and should be an important part of your professional career. There is a local student chapter
that meets between 6 to 7 times each semester and brings in speakers from industry. I will give 5 points for each
AIChE meeting that you attend when there is a speaker. This means that you can earn between 30 to 35 extra
credit points for attending AIChE meetings depending on the number of speakers that AIChE brings to campus.
Since AIChE meets in the evenings and not everyone can attend, this will be extra credit and not part of the
regular course requirement.
Another opportunity for your professional development is to attend the Graduate Seminars that are held
almost weekly) with notices being sent out by the ChE office. To get points for attending one of the Graduate
Seminars you will need to attend the seminar and collect the notice which is handed out at the seminar (or
picked up at the ChE office) and on the back give you name and write a paragraph about what you learned or
understood from the presentation. A copy of the form needs to be submitted on-line on CANVAS. Again I will
give 5 points for each Graduate Seminar you attend and submit on CANVAS. For both AIChE meetings and
graduate seminars you will just have three days to submit the report on CANVAS. After three days no credit
will not be given.
When it is all said and done you cannot earn more than one letter grade (100 pts) of extra credit. This
would mean that you would have to attend 20 of such meetings.
S&Tconnect: https://canvas.mst.edu/ (S&Tconnect icon on left toolbar) S&Tconnect provides an enhanced system that
allows students to request appointments with their instructors and advisors via the S&Tconnect calendar, which syncs with
the faculty or staff member’s Outlook Exchange calendar. S&Tconnect will also facilitate better communication overall to
help build student academic success and increase student retention. S&Tconnect Early Alert has replaced the Academic
Alert system used by Missouri S&T. If training is needed, please contact Rachel Morris at rachelm@mst.edu or 341-7600.

The Burns & McDonnell Student Success Center

The Student Success Center is a centralized location designed for students to visit and feel comfortable about utilizing the
campus resources available. The Student Success Center was developed as a campus wide initiative to foster a sense of
responsibility and self-directedness to all S&T students by providing peer mentors, caring staff, and approachable faculty
and administrators who are student centered and supportive of student success. Visit the B&MSSC at 198 Toomey Hall;
573-341-7596; success@mst.edu; facebook: www.facebook.com/SandTssc; web: http://studentsuccess.mst.edu/ I will hold
office hours in the Student Success Center

Disability Support Services: http://dss.mst.edu

If you have a documented disability and anticipate needing accommodations in this course, you are strongly encouraged to
meet with me early in the semester. You will need to request that the Disability Services staff send a letter to me verifying
your disability and specifying the accommodation you will need before I can arrange your accommodation

Academic Dishonesty: http://registrar.mst.edu/academicregs/index.html

Page 30 of the Student Academic Regulations handbook describes the student standard of conduct relative to the System's
Collected Rules and Regulations section 200.010, and offers descriptions of academic dishonesty including cheating,
plagiarism or sabotage. Additional guidance for faculty, including the University’s Academic Dishonesty Procedures, is
available on-line at http://ugs.mst.edu.

Classroom Egress Maps: You should know where the classroom emergency exits are located. Familiarize yourselves
with the classroom egress maps posted on-line at: http://registrar.mst.edu/links/egress.html.