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Developing safe processes is of paramount importance to any chemical company. Exothermic chemical reactions in batch and semi- batch processes can result in serious injury to people and plant if they get out of control. Results of thermal runaways include violent loss of containment, possibly explosion and the release of flammable or toxic materials to the environment. There are around 30 such incidents reported in the UK each year, and many more “near misses” go unreported. The costs associated with an incident can be very high.

Employers are bound by Health & Safety legislation to ensure the safety of their employees and those outside their employment who might he affected by their activities. Chemical manufacturers must therefore be aware of all potential dangers in their processes and take steps to eliminate them. The best approach is to design safety into the process from the start.

Often, the first sign of loss of control over a reaction is a reduction in yield or in the quality of the product. Thus safety, quality and profitability are all interlinked.

This course is designed to enhance the awareness of chemists and engineers regarding hazard issues. Utilizing the expertise of the chemists and chemical engineers at Scientific Update and Chilworth Technology, it will consider hazard control of new chemical processes throughout their development cycle: from early development through to full-scale production. Hazards can often be eliminated by appropriate choice of reagent or synthetic route at the R&D stage. Where this is not possible, techniques exist to quantify the hazards so that robust engineering solutions can he applied in production.