Integration of process safety in equipment design: A framework for academic learning activity

Abstract

Safety is an important area in engineering education and the trends nowadays are to promote its learning throughout an engineering curriculum and/or teaching safety as a stand-alone subject. Equipment design is one of the core subjects that chemical and process engineering students learn in their program. Learning of safety principles through their incorporation into equipment design is identified as an effective approach by experts in engineering education. This study presents a methodological framework for a cycle-based academic learning activity, incorporating the four safety strategies, namely, inherent, passive, active and procedural safety in the process of equipment design. A case study applying the proposed framework, on learning of safety protocols incorporated in the design of a reactor, is presented. Majority of the students subjected to this study believe that they learnt safety strategies through this activity and their perception on achieving learning outcomes is positive.