PRINCIPLES OF INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES AND PLANT SAFETY
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Bibliography
- Delivery method
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
The course requires well-established knowledge of inorganic and organic chemistry, mathematics and physics.
There is only one final exam, which ensures the acquisition of knowledge and skills expected by conducting an oral test lasting about 20 minutes.
The oral examination consists of three different types of questions aimed at assessing: 1) ability to present an argument in a comprehensive manner (or part of a topic) treated into the course; 2) ability to respond briefly and precisely to a specific request; 3) ability to use the knowledge and skills acquired in order to analyze issues not explicitly addressed in the course.
As regards the first type of question, the student is asked to speak for about 10 minutes (without a break) of a topic covered during the course.
As for the second type of question, the student is proposed to respond in a quick and concise (less than 5 minutes) to a question concerning an issue addressed in the course. It is thus tested the student's ability to synthesize together with the ability to get into the core of a topic and avoid unnecessary digressions.
Finally, as regards the third type of question, the student is asked to analyze an issue not explicitly covered by the course but which has significant similarities (both from a technical and functional point of view) with what has been largely dealt with. The student must be able to identify similarities with already known problems, and he/she must therefore make certain assumptions relating to the proposed solution.
In the oral examination all these three types of question have the same weight (with reference to a thirty rating: 8/30). 6/30 can be attributed to the properties of language (use of correct terminology and ability to formulate precise sentences, logical and grammatically correct).
The course aims to provide the basic elements to characterize, in terms of both theoretical (physical principles of operation and construction aspects) and practical features (pattern recognition and standard plant configurations), the most common equipment used in the process industry (chemical, pharmaceutical, food, etc. ..). It is also proposed to improve the ability of relating and combining all the different studied devices in order of developing a specific industrial process (from the synthesis recipe of the desired products to their separation and purification to achieve the specific desired qualities) and critically assessing all its corresponding safety aspects (industrial hygiene and assessment of chemical, physical and biological risks).
The course covers the following topics:
1 - SYSTEMS, PROCESSES and SAFETY FEATURES OF CHEMICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY
Duration: 20 hours - classroom teaching
Equipment studied: liquid reactors (both continuous and discontinuous), gas-solid fixed and fluid bed reactors, heat exchangers (thermal conditioning of reactors), controllers and actuators, calorimeters.
Processes: synthesis of herbicides (aromatic nitrations), final treatments of flocculation and flavoring of antibiotics in fluidized bed reactors.
Safety: hazards derived from explosions in thermal reactors and dust explosions (with references to current Italian legislation on safety, Legislative Decree 81/08 - Title IX and Title XI). Descriptions and causes reconstruction of accidents occurred during the run of the previously described processes.
2 - PROCESS PLANT AND FOOD INDUSTRY
Duration: 20 hours - classroom teaching
Equipment studied: mixers (liquid-liquid, liquid-solid, liquid-gas, liquid-solid-gas), extruders, compressors and pumps.
Processes: production of chocolate, ice cream and pasta; extraction of essential oils with supercritical CO2 (thermodynamics of solid phase transitions and elements of rheology).
Safety: Biohazards within food industry (with references to current Italian legislation on safety, Legislative Decree 81/08 Title-X). Chemical risk related to explosive atmospheres (Title XI of Legislative Decree 81/08).
3 - PURIFICATION TECHNIQUES OF EXHAUSTED AIR
Duration: 8 hours - classroom teaching
Equipment studied: cyclones, electrostatic precipitators, bag filters, absorbers and adsorbers.
Techniques studied: dynamics of solid and liquid particles into air, absorption and adsorption.
Processes: use of studied equipment in order to purify air streams flowing in the ventilation systems of production departments.
Safety: physical risk and microclimate in workplaces (with references to current Italian legislation on safety, Legislative Decree 81/08 - Title VIII).
Lessons: slides and handouts are provided in the classroom by the professor (in pdf or paper format) - available on the elearning website in pdf format.
Movies: files provided in the classroom by the teacher or reachable through links listed directly on the slides and handouts provided to the students in pdf format.
The course will be conducted entirely using lectures in which, in addition to the normal teaching activities, you will make extensive use of multimedia movies in order to promote the learning of all the concepts relating to both the operation of industrial equipment and the dynamics of all processes analyzed.
The teacher receives on appointment. It is possible to book an appointment by sending an email to: sabrina.copelli@uninsubria.it.