PPS at the CSE
PPS Studies – Uni and Content
Engineers we trust
PPS – Process and Plant Safety is taught at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern in the Master’s programme. It is a cross-sectional discipline for engineers, chemists and others.
Target group
The lecture PPS is aimed at students of the degree programmes:
- Mechanical and process engineering
- Biological and chemical engineering
- Industrial Engineering
- Chemistry
- Energy Management
- Technical economics
as well as interested parties from other technically oriented disciplines who would like to expand their knowledge in the area of process and plant safety.
Requirements
No special knowledge is required for the lecture. However, basics of fluid mechanics, thermodynamics and technical chemistry simplify the understanding.
PPS is highly interdisciplinary – many subjects from different courses of study can be important for the PPS expert. The following are the topics taught in the subject Process and Plant Safety:
Lecture contents
The lecture contents are in accordance with the requirements of the Dechema teaching profile Process and Plant Safety..
Introduction to safety engineering
- Incidents – causes and effects
- Principle possibilities for safeguarding installations
- Safety engineering as an interdisciplinary field of work
Risk management
- Terms/Definitions: Danger, risk, critical risk
- Assessing and evaluating risks
- Legal requirements (e.g. Major Accidents Ordinance)
- Plant safety concept
- Operability: Chemistry/Process/Site/Equipment
- Primary and secondary safeguarding measures
- Safety analyses (e.g. HAZOP)
- Hazard identification methods
- Technical risk analysis (risk graph and reliability study)
- Possibilities of danger defense / risk minimisation
Safety assessment of hazardous substances
- Terms: Hazardous substance, dangerous substance, intake routes
- Standards: Hazardous substances / dangerous goods legislation
- Classification / labelling / packaging of hazardous substances
- Introduction to occupational safety
- Risk assessments
- Workplace limit value, biological tolerance value
- Safety Data Sheets / REACH Directive
- Test methods for the determination of safety-related parameters of hazardous substances (classification of hazardous substances)
- Storage / combined storage of substances
Safety assessment of chemical processes
- Reasons for continuous reactions
- Concepts and guidelines (e.g. TAA, TRAS 410)
- Procedure for identifying and assessing hazards from exothermic reactions
- Safety-related parameters (e.g. adiabatic temperature increase, adiabatic induction time)
- Introduction to adiabatic reaction calorimetry
- Assessment of hazards due to exothermic chemical reactions (evaluation of DSC, pressurised heat build-up test results)
- Heat explosion theory
Plant safety concept
- Selection of a suitable safety concept
- Inherent safety / Layer-of-protection concept / human factors
Basics of two-phase flow
- Basics (flow forms / balance equations / key figures)
- Flow concepts
- Quasi single-phase flow, homogeneous flow
- Two-fluid models, Frozen Flow, HEM, HNE
Emergency discharge of chemical reactors
- Phenomenological description of the processes in heat explosions and decomposition reactions
- Calculation of the mass flow to be discharged / steam fraction (DIERS – Methodology)
Safety devices
- Design and function of flame arresters, bursting discs and safety valves
- Valve characteristics, hysteresis
Reactor safeguarding I
- Procedural optimisation of the process
- Inherently safe plants
- Sizing of safety valves and bursting discs (ISO 4126)
- Flow condition at the valve inlet
- Single-phase flow, gas/liquid flow
- Evaluation of the safe function of a safety valve
- Dimensioning of piping systems
Introduction to safeguarding other equipment
- Columns
- Heat exchanger
Retention systems
- Concepts and guidelines: Retention of hazardous liquids / vapours
- Separators for emergency discharge systems ( sizing of gravity and cyclone separators)
- Direct condensation: Quenches / Immersions / Jet apparatuses
- Operational disposal / Safe Bag
- Reaction stoppers / emergency cooling systems
Reactor safeguarding II
- PCT protection concepts
- Construction of PCT facilities
- Classification of PCT devices (monitoring / safeguarding)
- Requirements for PCT protective devices
- Risk reduction according to IEC 61511
- Reliability / availability of PCT protection devices
- Classic PCT protection concepts
New methods for safeguarding reactors
- “Intelligent high-availability PCT protection devices”
- Safeguarding reactors without safety devices
- Realisation of complex software-based PCT protection devices
- Safety-related control systems
- Validation / verification of PCT protection concepts
Safe discharge of gases and vapours
- Dispersion calculation
- Fundamentals of the dispersion of hazardous substances (inversion, atmospheric temperature stratification, turbulence)
- Legal requirements (Major Accidents Ordinance, VDI 3783)
- Free-radiation propagation / Atmospheric propagation according to VDI 3783
- Evaporation from liquid pooln
- Incident assessment values: e.g. ERPG, AEGL, IDLH, TEEL
- Assessment of explosion hazards / toxic hazards