God our Heavenly Father’s work is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (Moses 1:39). That immortality is having and maintaining a living body of flesh and bone forever. It is also being able to live with God our Heavenly Father forever through the infinite and eternal atonement of Jesus Christ. We can live there according to the laws and ordinances that define the environment where God our Heavenly Father lives. Key to living there is loving God and our neighbors as ourselves. Another word for love is safety, spiritual and physical safety.
Physical and Spiritual Safety¶
Safety in Jesus Christ is applying systematic methods to ensure the physical and spiritual health of ourselves and those around us such that we can have immortality and eternal life. There are safe practices for our physical bodies and for the chemical systems with which we will work. There is also, perhaps more importantly, safety for our souls and the spiritual souls that surround us.
God-Given Stewardship¶
We have been given stewardship for our lives, our bodies, and the land that we have been given to live on together with all the other children of God on all continents of Earth. Our actions as chemical engineers can be magnified for the benefit of man (Haber-Bosch process for example) or to the detriment of man (derivatives of the Haber-Bosch process to wage war for example).
Course Outline¶
This class treats those two broad topics (safety and stewardship) in addressing the following:
Spiritual Safety in Jesus Christ¶
Ethics
AIChE Code of Ethics
Guiding principles from the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Physical Safety¶
Protection of people and resources from harm. Here we highlight Process Safety Management (PSM). There are fourteen elements part of the process safety management (PSM) required by OSHA for organizations working or storing chemicals above a certain threshold. The threshold for explosives is 0, meaning any amount of explosives qualifies the company to comply with PSM. The regulation is part of the code of federal regulations (CFR) as outlined here: 29 CFR 1910.119 (OSHA PSM). The primary element is Hazards Analysis and secondarily Process Safety Information.
The above arch shows the hazards as bricks held back by an arch representing PSM with the keystone to that arch (hazards analysis) being the most important part to protecting people and resources from harm.
Hazards Analysis (HA)¶
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
Hazards and Operability (HAZOP)
Job Safety Analysis (JSA)
Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA)
Process Safety Information (PSI)¶
A critical part of hazards analysis is properly understanding the chemicals and scenarios that can lead to harm. This critical information is Process Safety Information (PSI).
God-Given Stewardship¶
Environment (Local vs Global, Acute vs Chronic)
Land
Water
Air
Regulations
Learning Outcomes¶
ABET¶
Students will be able to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors.
Students will function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives.
Students will be able to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts.
BYU¶
Students will exhibit critical and creative thinking skills for analysis and evaluation of problems and cause-effect relationships.
Students will be able to make order of magnitude estimates, assess reasonableness of solutions, and select appropriate levels of solution sophistication.
Students will be able to to pass the HAZCOM test.
Students will be able to describe a procedure for making and implementing ethical decisions and effectively apply the procedure to ethical problems of practical interest.
Students will be able to define integrity, and demonstrate understanding of how it applies to their lives and how to develop it through practice.
Students will understand teamwork principles including: recognition of team members’ strengths and weaknesses; importance of effective communication skills; recognition of unique contributions of team members; and the need to facilitate team members’ development.
Students will understand what it means to be a leader and the importance of self-awareness in leadership, and how to develop a vision, establish goals, formulate a strategy, and develop a plan consistent with that strategy.
Students will understand and commit to practice the AIChE code of ethics.
Students will understand the need for safe engineering practices; demonstrate knowledge of pertinent safety laws and regulations (including RAGAGEPs); understand and have a basic knowledge of how safety considerations are incorporated into engineering design.
Students will be able to apply principles of risk management, Hazards and Operability Studies (HAZOPS), Layers of Protection Analysis (LOPA), and fault-tree analyses in process design.
Course Textbook¶
Foundations of Spiritual and Physical Safety: with Chemical Processes by Clint Guymon, PhD PE, First Edition, Amazon Link.
Syllabus¶
The syllabus is available on Learning Suite.
Course Schedule¶
The course is divided up into five modules roughly divided by the following topics:
Module 1: Spiritual Safety and Ethics
Focus: Establishing the dual framework of physical and spiritual safety, and the ethical responsibilities of an engineer.Lectures: 1-4
Reading through Chapter II (Foundations of Spiritual and Physical Safety: with chemical processes)
Module 2: Understanding Harm and Risk
Focus: How injuries occur (toxicology/physics) and how we quantify risk.Lectures: 5-8
Reading through Chapter IV
Module 3: Systematic Hazards Analysis
Focus: The core engineering methodologies for identifying and mitigating risk.Lectures: 9-15
Reading through Chapter V
Module 4: Critical Process Safety Information
Focus: Chemical thermodynamics, flammability, and explosions.Lectures: 16-21
Reading through Chapter VI
Module 5: Safeguards & Regulations
Focus: Engineering controls, legal requirements, and tools.Lectures: 22-30
Reading through Chapter XII & Appendix
Content is presented using Jupyter Book.