2024/25 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

CAPE2020 Safety, Health and Environment

20 creditsClass Size: 180

Module manager: Dr A Pallipurath
Email: a.r.pallipurath@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

Chemical engineers have a crucial role to play in the defining how every day processes that are critical to the modern world impact on the environment and also the health of society. There are perhaps no processes more important than the production of drinking water and maintaining of clean air standards. This module will examine both air and water systems from a society and engineering view point, as key examples of environmental and health impact.Secondly, leaders and managers of any chemical or process engineering activity, be this in the private or public sector, need to make responsible, ethical decisions that protect the safety and health of an organisation's employees, users of the organisation's products and the wider public. Operating with a strong regard for safety and health protects not only people, but also the organisation's reputation and future. There can be a substantial, positive return on investment in safety and health, for example through avoiding productivity and property losses, impact on future insurance premiums, uninsured costs, fines etc. This module provides the tools and ways of thinking needed to address safety in the context of a chemical or process engineering organisation.

Objectives

Semester 1 of this module combines water treatment and air quality environmental health aspects. The key objectives for the water treatment section are to arm students with a knowledge of all the major unit operations involved with front end water treatment for domestic drinking purposes. It also includes a general assessment of the need for treatment, and international challenges to clean water, as well as the main types of organic and inorganic contaminants present. The air quality section highlights key air quality issues around the world, and includes analysis of monitoring data, in order to assess whether objectives in the National Air Quality Strategy have been met, and solutions for tackling these issues.

The process safety and health section of the module (in Semester 2) aims to equip students with the ways of thinking and tools needed to conduct chemical and process engineering activities in a safe manner that does not have negative impacts on health. This section of the module, therefore, focuses on the intersection of technology, people and processes but primarily exemplifies the methods used in industry to ensure process safety. The concepts covered in the module are illustrated by means of case studies.

Learning outcomes
Environment
- Be aware of specialist aspects of safety and environmental issues.
- Be aware of relevant legal requirements, codes or practice, and industry standards governing engineering activities.
- Have knowledge of the local legislative framework and how it is applied to the management of safety, health and environment in practice and in the workplace.
- Understand and be able to apply the principles of sustainability and the ability to apply techniques for analysing the interaction of process, product and plant with the environment and minimising adverse impacts.
- Understand basic chemical principles to characterize the performance of a range separation and similar processing steps for fluids and particulates in the context of water treatment.

Health and Safety
- Be able to identify the principal hazard sources in chemical and related processes.
- Be able to apply systematic methods for identifying process hazards (eg HAZOP), and for assessing the range of consequences.
- Understand the principles of safety and loss prevention, and their application to inherently safe design.
- Understand the principles of risk assessment and of safety management, and be able to apply techniques for the assessment and abatement of process and product hazards.
- Understand the security risks of digitalisation using process, cyber and automation.

Syllabus

Semester 1
Water Treatment
- The need for water treatment and challenges to water security.
- The main inorganic and organic contaminants found in water treatment (including biological).
- A key understanding of the main unit operations in water treatment:
>Reservoir control and aeration
>Coagulation, flocculation and chemical dosing
>Clarification
>Filtration (deep bed and cake filtration)
>Membrane separation and GAC
>Chlorination and other disinfection
Air Quality
1. Introduction to legal framework for Air Quality legislation and the changes in the draft Environment Bill.
2. Health effects of air and fine particulate pollutants
3. Sources of air pollution and trends in emissions of pollutants that contribute to poor air quality.
4. Air quality regulations.
5. Occupational exposure to pollution - COSHH and REACH.
6. The Clean Air Acts.
7. Meteorology and pollutant dispersion.
8. Environmental Law for Process Industries.
9. Town and Country Act planning law for Environmental Impact.
10. Environmental Management and Environmental Permits in Industry.

Semester 2
- Why safety and health?
- Examples of some well-known industrial accidents and what we learned from them
- Safety law
- Hazards and risks
- Occurrences, incidents and accidents
- What happens when people, engineering, regulation, policy and processes meet?
- Tools for thinking about engineering safety. What IFs and HAZOP risk assessment methods
- Human error
- How can organisations enhance safety?
- Accident investigations
- Reporting systems and employee consultation
- ISO 45001 - Occupational health and safety
- Case studies
- VR simulation of engineering faults using TSC Sim-8000 module

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	30	2.00	60.00
Practical	4	2.00	8.00
Private study hours			132.00
Total Contact hours			68.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

Coursework: 64 hrs
Private study: 68 hrs.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Written assignments

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Assignment	Report	50.00
Assignment	Report	50.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 14/05/2024

Disclaimer

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