Process Safety for Chemical Engineers

Process safety is not a chapter at the back of chemical engineering. It is the reason most of the design equations exist.

This reference puts the two together, section by section, in the order a practising engineer works. You will find the property data and estimation methods your calculations rest on, reactor design equations extended into thermal stability and runaway criteria, flammability and ignition behaviour, source terms and dispersion, fire and explosion consequences, and relief sizing including two-phase scenarios.

Hazard identification, fault and event trees, layer of protection analysis and inherently safer design follow, each with worked numbers rather than description alone, and the closing chapter supplies PE-format problems mapped back to every section. For chemical engineers in design and operations and for PE candidates.

What you will learn:

• Apply process safety management principles and risk concepts to real plant decisions
• Estimate physical properties and use them correctly in hazard calculations
• Use material and energy balances as diagnostic tools for abnormal situations
• Extend chemical reaction engineering fundamentals to thermal stability and runaway criteria
• Evaluate flammability limits, ignition behaviour, and their impact on safe operation
• Model source terms and dispersion for accidental releases
• Assess fire and explosion consequences with practical methods
• Size pressure relief systems, including two-phase flow scenarios
• Perform hazard identification, quantitative risk analysis, and layer of protection analysis
• Apply inherently safer design and plant layout principles
• Solve PE-format problems mapped to each section of the handbook

This book is for chemical engineers in design and operations who need a working reference that connects fundamentals to process safety, and for PE candidates preparing for the chemical engineering exam. It assumes a background in chemical engineering principles and provides worked numbers, not just descriptions, so you can apply the methods directly.