Shell sponsors CHBE 494 Process Safety course in Spring 2023
The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering recently started offering the CHBE 494 Process Safety course, which is sponsored by Shell and geared towards equipping students with the universal fundamentals needed to stay safe while working in the chemical process industry.
“Process safety is critical for ensuring safe production in the chemical industry,” said Raj Sengupta, a mergers, acquisition, and divestment manager at Shell. “The CHBE 494 course is teaching the importance of these issues to future graduates as part of our long-standing partnership with the department.”
The class is taught by senior lecturer Joachim Floess, who formerly worked in industry and who is sharing his expertise and preparing students to address the safety issues they may encounter in the workforce.
Early in his career, Floess worked at General Electric’s research and development center in Schenectady, New York. He also spent time at the Cabot Corporation, a specialty chemicals and materials company in Tuscola, Illinois. In between these roles, he taught chemical engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago and earned his doctorate in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“One of the most critical learning objectives revolves around what I like to call technical engineering,” Floess said. “Essentially, applying engineering analysis and engineering design to properly deal with the flammability and toxicological characteristics of the numerous liquids, solids, and gasses that are encountered in the chemical industry.”
Next semester will be the fourth installment of this three-credit elective course. Students with senior standing or beginning graduate students are encouraged to take the course to expand their knowledge of chemical safety principles. This upcoming semester will additionally address the interaction of chemicals with people, and the role of toxicology and industrial hygiene in process safety.
The critical examination of the current chemical process industry will allow students to learn how to analyze a process for safety, taking into consideration the environmental compatibility of a process and how to have a more positive impact on the planet.
The course explores a variety of topics through lectures, case studies, and guest speakers with support from Shell.
“Shell continues to be a valued corporate sponsor of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, for example, through our tutoring program and the process safety course,” said department head Paul Kenis, the Elio E. Tarika endowed Chair. “Their ongoing support of this course has helped several of our students to enter industry as fully prepared, safety conscious engineers.”