Design of Chemical Processes Including Inherent Safety
The next presentation in the Texas A&M Energy Institute Lecture Series, featuring Dr. Arturo Jiménez-Gutiérrez, a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Celaya Institute of Technology, will be held on Friday, September 14, 2018 from 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM in the Frederick E. Giesecke Engineering Research Building (GERB) Third Floor Conference Room. The topic will be “Design of Chemical Processes Including Inherent Safety.”
Biography
Dr. Arturo Jiménez-Gutiérrez is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Celaya Institute of Technology in Mexico. He received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering with Honors from the Celaya Institute in 1974, a Master of Science degree from the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in 1975, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1982, where he also was Postdoctoral Researcher in 1983.
Some of his achievements include his appointment as a Summer Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1984 to present, a teaching award from Celaya Institute of Technology in 1991, a Fulbright Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1993, an Award for Academic Achievements from the Mexican Association of Engineering Colleges in 2005, and a Fulbright Scholar at Carnegie Mellon University in 2006. Has appointed as an Honorary Fellow of the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007, and has served as a Visiting Professor at Texas A&M University in 2010, 2014 and 2017. He presented the Lecture to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Chemical Engineering program at the University of San Luis Potosi, Mexico in 2011.
He is a Member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and the Mexican Academy of Engineering and serves on the Editorial Board of Computers and Chemical Engineering. In 2014, he received the award as a National Investigator Level 3, the highest distinction given by the Mexican government through the National System of Investigators for scientific achievements.
Jiménez-Gutiérrez has published two books and 140 scientific papers, and has served as advisor of 79 graduate students (20 Ph.D. and 59 M.S.).
Abstract
The design of chemical processes has been typically carried out based on technical and economic criteria. Other factors have gradually been considered as part of the design task, such as controllability and sustainability issues. However, those related to process safety have been usually tackled once the process has been designed, or once it is operating. In this seminar, an approach to include safety metrics as part of the design of a process is presented. In particular, we show how inherent safety principles can be integrated from the design stage of the chemical process. Two approaches are presented. The first one deals with the application of quantitative risk analysis techniques for the design of extractive distillation systems, including solvent selection and its effects on the design and safety properties of the separation system. A multi-objective optimization formulation was used to identify the optimal compromises between economic and safety considerations, which depend on the solvent selected for the separation system. The second approach shows how inherent safety metrics can be used to compare different process flowsheets to detect those that are inherently safer, and its relationship to economic and sustainability characteristics of the process. It is shown that conflicts among these three metrics exist. Possible extensions of these research efforts are discussed.