Industrial Hazards and Plant Safety

Book excerpt: Here is a new and analytical approach to chemical plant safety-encompassing design, construction, and operation to reduce the likelihood of hazardous incidents as well as actions to mitigate their consequences should they still occur. The most significant safety issues are addressed both from the viewpoint of the fundamental phenomena and the perspective of plant design. Many of the phenomena covered are outside the scope of the normal chemical engineering curriculae; examples include compressible multiphase flow, deflagrations and detonations, turbulent dispersion, thermochemical characterization methods for material decomposition and reactions. In the plant design area, topics of importance include built in redundancy of equipment, and minimization of inventory of hazardous materials. The combination of the fundamental and applied aspects makes this book a unique and useful one for both the academic and industrial sectors.