News from Chemical Engineering

OSU ChE Seniors – National Best

Incorporation of Safety and Loss Prevention

2002 National AIChE Team Plant Design Contest

            OSU ChE Seniors Jamie Cohea, John Giusti, and Matt Stephens were honored as having the best incorporation of safety and loss prevention in their process design for the 2002 National Student Team Plant Design Contest.  With this AIChE Safety and Health Division Award for best application of safety concepts student design, they will split a $500 award and be presented at the Student Awards brunch at the Annual Student Conference this November. 

            This year students were challenged to design a process to manufacture a 3000-molecular weight, straight propylene oxide polyether.  In the process, glycerin is mixed, in a reactor, with potassium hydroxide catalyst to form an activated initiator.  Water is then vacuum-pumped from the reactor before propylene oxide is added to form a polyether.  The ether liquid is highly flammable, and the vapor explosive.

            The student team designed the facility to use two batch reactors in series, and included safety features the process equipment, control system, start-up and shut-down procedures, and layout of the entire facility.  To analyze and improve their design, they applied a what-if hazard analysis to identify potential hazards. 

Specific features included purging both reactors with nitrogen before operation to reduce the potential for fire, incorporating a passive relief system, sizing the reactors to withstand the possible maximum pressure in the case of a runaway reaction, and location of employee work areas. 

Jamie is presently working for ConocoPhillips in the Coke and Carbon technology group in Ponca City, OK.  “On the weekends I come back to Stillwater to cheer on the Cowboys either on the football field or the basketball court.”

John is pursuing an MBA at OSU.             Matt is pursuing a PhD in Chemical

                                                                 Engineering at Colorado State University

This National first-place in the safety and loss prevention category continues our students’ tradition of overall first-place wins in the team process design competition in1995 and 1997. The contest is managed by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and judges include both professors and practicing engineers. Accordingly, winning designs must show competence in both the theory and practice of chemical engineering.

Instructors for the Plant Design Course were Jan Wagner and Karen High.