Chemical Engineering January 2022 - 39

refers to a process that produces gaseous MIC, which
is consumed immediately [10].
Unaddressed risks/hazards
If significant hazards/risks exist that are not dealt with,
they should be flagged so they will not be forgotten
in the future. This helps ensure someone will design
safeguards into the process to manage those risks
and mitigate outcomes. For example, one of the senior
chemical engineering design projects at the University
of Cincinnati involved designing a greener process for
making dimethyl carbonate [11]. The process uses a
catalyst (methyl iodide) with an NFPA health rating of
3. The Safety and Hazard Section of PubChem's Compound
Summary for methyl iodide states that storing
amounts greater than or equal to 7,500 lb " presents a
potential for a catastrophic event ... " [12]. This is the
type of item one would flag, because storage systems
are not dealt with during process synthesis.
Concluding remarks
The decisions made during synthesis set the HSE
features of a process. Thus, it is imperative HSE be
integrated into the process design. Especially with
chemical processes, it is the only way HSE risk can
be adequately dealt with. The approach in this article
enables the synthesis engineer to identify and manage
the major HSE hazards and risks in a process. n
Edited by Scott Jenkins
References
1. National Research Council, The Use and Storage of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) at Bayer CropScience,
Washington
DC, 2012, p. 32.
2. Brown, T.R., Cost Engineering: Integrating Technology and Economics, Chem. Eng., December
1, 2017, pp. 35-36.
3. Berezow, Alex, Four Coronavirus Lessons That We Will (or Won't) Learn, Geopolitical Futures,
May 1, 2020.
4. Cameo Chemicals MSDS, available at: https://cameochemicals.noaa.gov/chemical/1112.
5. Crowl, D.A. and Louvar, J.F., " Chemical Process Safety, " 4th Edition, Prentice Hall, 2019.
6. Kletz, T.A, and Amyotte, P., " Process Plants: A Handbook for Inherently Safer Design, " 2nd Edition,
CRC Press, 2010.
7. Crowl, D.A. and Louvar, J.F., " Chemical Process Safety, " 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, 2002, p. 26.
8. Cameo Chemicals MSDS, https://cameochemicals.noaa.gov/chemical/4228.
9. Crowl, D.A. and Louvar, J.F., " Chemical Process Safety, " 3rd Edition, Prentice Hall, 2011.
10. National Research Council, The Use and Storage of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) at Bayer CropScience,
Washington, D.C., 2012, p. 114.
11. An unpublished report by: Ballachino, K., Barr, C., Brown, N., Gunther, A., and Vennefron, Evaluation
of the Production of Dimethyl Carbonate (DMC) through a Catalytic Reaction, March 2020.
12. PubChem Compound Summary,
Author
Thane Brown (Email: trbnjb@earthlink.net) worked for more
than 36 years for Procter & Gamble in a variety of engineering
and manufacturing roles, primarily in the food-and-beverage
business and in health, safety and environmental engineering.
In his last position there, Brown was director of North American
engineering. After retiring, he taught engineering economics
at the University of Cincinnati, and plant design at the
University of Dayton. Brown is presently a member of the
Chemical Engineering Advisory Committees at the University
of Dayton, at Miami University (Oxford, Ohio), at the University
of Louisville and at the University of Cincinnati. He also works as a SCORE counselor,
providing free assistance to small businesses in the Cincinnati area. Brown
authored the book " Engineering Economics and Economic Design for Process Engineers "
[1], as well as a number of articles on engineering economics, batch pressure
filtration and heat transfer. He is a registered professional engineer in Ohio
(inactive), and holds a B.S.Ch.E. from Oregon State University.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
JANUARY 2022
39
available at:
compound/6328#section=NFPA-Hazard-Classification.
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

https://www.chemengonline.com/chemical-engineering-magazine/ https://cameochemicals.noaa.gov/chemical/1112 https://cameochemicals.noaa.gov/chemical/4228 https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM

Chemical Engineering January 2022

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