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Module

CME2031 : Safety, Risk and Engineering Practice

  • Offered for Year: 2023/24
  • Module Leader(s): Dr Eni Oko
  • Lecturer: Dr Evangelos Papaioannou, Dr Chris O'Malley, Dr Adrian Oila
  • Owning School: Engineering
  • Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Semester 2 Credit Value: 20
ECTS Credits: 10.0

Aims

This module aims to continue to build up upon the CME1025 principles and provide a complete grounding in all aspects of process safety related to the Chemical Engineering Industry, provide an introduction to the properties of materials used in engineering including metals, and the services, techniques and regulatory provisions that are required in any process plants to enable the safe and efficient operations of processes.

Outline Of Syllabus

Safety

Responsibility and Regulations:
History and rationale behind regulations such as: COMAH (Control of Major Accident Hazards) Regulations 2015, SEVESO Directive.

Health and Safety principles:
Chemical, physical and biological hazards. Storage, transportation and disposal including waste management. Plant Safety and Best Practice Legislation COSHH and COMAH. Risk hierarchy (i.e. eliminate, substitute, contain, protect workforce). Emergency planning. Protective equipment, training and management issues.

Process Safety:
Based on previous disasters, illustrating Safety, Health and Environment & Loss Prevention using case studies and videos of previous key incidents.

Risk and Safety Tools:
Grounding in ample risk and safety tools such as Hazard Operability (HAZOP), Hazard Analysis (HAZAN), As Low As Reasonably Practical (ALARP). Includes HAZOP workshop & assessments.

Combustion:
Overview of combustion.

Engineering Practice

Marerial considerations affecting vessel design.

Introduction to process utilities for applications including heating and cooling duties. Introduction to electrical utilities. Practical hands-on introduction to wireing for safety circuits.

Practical introduction to key features of pumps and valves used in process safety and utility delivery.
Graphical and numerical representations of a heat exchanger network. Network synthesis based on 'pinch' design rules.
Flowsheet modelling and simulation.
Building physical property models and applying them in process simulation.

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities
Category Activity Number Length Student Hours Comment
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion11:001:00HAZOP/HEN Oral Assessment (6 students per group)
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion120:0020:00Exam Revision
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion12:002:00Exam
Guided Independent StudyAssessment preparation and completion71:007:00HAZOP and Heat Exchange Network Group Reports, 6 students per group
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesLecture411:0041:00Lectures and lecture materials
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesPractical12:002:00EA1 Labs
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesPractical23:006:00EA1 Labs
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesSmall group teaching81:008:00Tutorials
Scheduled Learning And Teaching ActivitiesWorkshops11:001:00HAZOP workshop to prepare for assessment
Guided Independent StudyIndependent study1112:00112:00Review lecture notes. Solving questions for tutorial sessions.
Total200:00
Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Safety:

Aspects of safety are introduced in logical steps, along with relevant industrial case studies, which illustrate and provide the reasons for the application of legislature as well as the tools and methods covered in the course.

Although formal lectures underpin the safety syllabus, the module contains practical sessions, which allow the students to apply and solve actual safety related engineering problems. For example, HAZOP provides scope for innovative and creative thinking, requiring the use of logical problem solving skills.

Engineering Practice:
The Engineering Practice element provides a basis for general engineering knowledge by use of lectures explaining the fundamental principles of process and electrical utilities, and practical laboratory exercises. The practical sessions outline procedures to solve problems and experiments to test hypotheses. These provide hands-on experience and enable critical thinking skills in learning and discovering.

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners

Exams
Description Length Semester When Set Percentage Comment
Written Examination1202A70N/A
Other Assessment
Description Semester When Set Percentage Comment
Oral Examination2M30HAZOP and Heat Exchange Network Oral Assessment (Group activity), 6 students per group with formative report element.
Zero Weighted Pass/Fail Assessments
Description When Set Comment
Computer assessmentMPractical Quiz. EA1 Formative Quiz (Individual activity)
Assessment Rationale And Relationship

This module contains significant practical components, for example there are 2 workshops within the safety part and a range of lab work as part of the engineering practice topics. Therefore it is considered reasonable 30% of this module should be assessed as coursework.

The formal lectures in safety introduce the theoretical reasons and methods of safety. However, since safety is conceptually a frame of mind, assessed practical workshops are used to emphasise and establish the concepts to the student. In addition, students are expected to successfully complete the Heat Exchange Network (HEN) coursework assignment. For this reason 30% of the total is attributed to HAZOP and HEN coursework.

The EA1 lab work represents a significant part of the engineering practice topics. Formative assessment is used to measure the understanding and the acquired practical ability students gain in understanding and carrying out experiments.

The students' ability and comprehension of theoretical aspects in both safety and engineering practice will be assessed in a 2 hour written exam amounting to 70% of the total mark. This value will allow a sufficient depth and breadth of theoretical knowledge to be thoroughly examined.

Reading Lists

Timetable