ChE 405: Process Design I

General Design Considerations

Dr. Syeda Sultana Razia

Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering, BUET

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 General Design Considerations

• Health and safety

• Loss prevention

• Environmental protection

• Other factors

Knowledge/understanding of latest national/state

regulations involving health, safety and
environment is critical

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 Health and Safety Hazards

• Hazard potential of chemicals

• Sources of exposure

• Exposure evaluation

• Control of exposure

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Hazard Potential of Chemicals

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What Amount Causes Harm ?

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 Measures of Toxicity

• Toxicity is measured as clinical “endpoints”

which include
– Mortality (death)
– Teratogenicity (ability to cause birth defects)
– Carcinogenicity (ability to cause cancer)
– Mutagenicity (ability to cause heritable change in the
DNA)

• At this time we will discuss two measures of

mortality – the LD50 and the LC50

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 Measures of Toxicity

• The Median Lethal Dose LD50

– The amount (dose) of a chemical which produces
death in 50% of a population of test animals to which
it is administered by any of a variety of methods.
Normally expressed as milligrams of substance per
kilogram of animal body weight (mg/kg)

• The Median Lethal Concentration LC50

– The concentration of a chemical in an environment
(generally air or water) which produces death in 50%
of an exposed population of test animals in a
specified time frame. Normally expressed as
milligrams of substance per liter of air or water (or as
ppm) mg/L
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Lethal Doses

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 Measures of Toxicity

• PEL: Permissible Exposure Limit

• TLV: Threshold Limit Value

• Database of physical and chemical properties

– TOXLINE and TOXNET

• Data publisher
– OSHA, AIHA, NIOSH, HSE

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 Entry of Toxicants to Biological
Organisms
• Ingestion: through mouth into stomach

• Inhalation: through mouth or nose into the lungs

• Injection: through cut into the skin

• Dermal: absorption through skin membrane

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Toxic Blood Level Concentrations

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 Sources of Exposure

• Dust, particles: from cutting, grinding and solid

handling

• Liquid spills

• Gas/vapor from leaks from pumps, valves ; and

venting

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 Exposure Evaluation

• Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS)

• Air analysis methods

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Air Analysis Methods

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Pollutant Standard value‡ Standard type
Carbon monoxide
8-h average 9ppm (10 mg/m3) Primary
1-h average 35 ppm (40 mg/m3) Primary
Nitrogen dioxide
Annual arithmetic mean 0.053 ppm (100μg/m3) Primary and secondary
Ozone
1-h average 0.12 ppm (235 μg/m3) Primary and secondary
Lead
Quarterly average 1.5 μg/m3 Primary and secondary
Sulfur dioxide
Annual arithmetic mean 0.03 ppm (80 μg/m3) Primary
24-h average 0.14 ppm (365 μg/m3) Primary
3-h average 0.50 ppm (1300 μg/m3) Secondary
Particulates (<10 μm)
Annual arithmetic mean 50 μg/m3 Primary and secondary
24-h average 150 μg/m3 Primary and secondary
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 Control of Exposure

• Three general principles of reducing exposure of

workers to occupational hazards
– Source control: prevent release of toxic contaminants
to the air i.e. Containment and Change of
process/operation to eliminate or reduce exposure
– Transmission control: capturing or blocking the
contaminates from reaching the workers i.e.
Ventilation
– Personal protection: preventing contact with toxic
contaminant i.e. PPE

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Control of Exposure

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 Fire and Explosion Hazards

• Fire triangle : Fuel, Oxidizer, ignition source, Combustion

must be self sustaining

• LFL (Lower flammable limit) Minimum concentration of

fuel in air required for ignition at ambient temperature

• UFL (Upper flammable limit): concentration above which

ignition will not occur

• LOI ( limiting oxygen index)

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 Fire and Explosion Hazards

• Flammability limits of mixtures from le Chatelier’s

principle

• LFL and UFL of mixtures from concentration

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 Fire and Explosion Hazards

• Elevated pressures, temperatures

• Auto ignition temperature: the temperature at which

ignition occurs without any spark (minimum amount of
energy is required)

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 Classification of Fires

CLASS A: ordinary solids

CLASS B: liquids or gases

CLASS C: A/B in presence of live electric circuits

CLASS D: consume metals

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 Fire Protection

• Active: water spray foam, dry chemicals

• Passive: insulating, fire proofing

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 Explosion
• Sudden and catastrophic release of energy causing
pressure wave
– Detonation: chemical reaction propagates at supersonic
speed (confined and a high intensity source)
– Deflagration: combustion propagates like normal burning;
subsonic velocity

• Causes: Physical reaction, chemical reaction, nuclear

reaction

• Energy release: TNT equivalent – 4.52 MJ/kg

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 Explosion Related to Chemical
Industry
• BLEVE:
BLEVE: boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion
(sudden depressurization, rapid vaporization with
explosive force)

• UVCE:
UVCE: Unconfined vapor cloud explosion, large cloud of
gas and explosion occurs with ignition

• Dust explosion : dispersed in air, small particle size,

suspended over sufficient amount of time and ignited

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 Equipment should be designed:

To meet specifications and codes

American Standards Association

American Petroleum Institute (API)

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)

Factory Mutual Laboratories (FML)

National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)

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 Design and Construction of pressure
vessels and storage tanks:
• API

• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)

The vessel should be tested at 1.5 to 2 or more times

the design pressure

Adequate venting is necessary

Advisable to provide protection by both spring-

spring-loaded
valves and rupture disks

Eliminate all unnecessary ignition sources – flames,

sparks, or heated material

Alarms, fire-
fire-fighting equipment, sprinkler
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