Inherently Safer Design – It Starts With You

Speaker

Nicole Loontjens
Process Safety Manager, Americas Styrenics LLC

Overview

Trevor Kletz, the godfather of process safety, said, “What you don’t have can’t leak.” If you aren’t using a hazardous chemical, then that chemical can’t leak. If you use one tank instead of two, that is one tank less that can leak. As researchers, engineers, and plant operators, there are an unlimited number of ways that we can design inherently safer systems. This talk will introduce you to the inherently safer design principles using examples throughout industry.

Bio: Nicole Loontjens graduated from URI’s chemical engineering program in 2001 and is currently the Process Safety Manager for Americas Styrenics – a company that produces styrene and polystyrene for the North and South American markets. She began her career with Dow Chemical in Midland, MI, before transferring to the polystyrene facility in Connecticut in 2004. She has a Process Safety Practice Certificate from Texas A&M University and is an ISA 84 Safety Instrumented Systems Expert. Nicole contributed to the forthcoming book from AIChE’s Center for Chemical Process Safety – Guidelines for Inherently Safer Design.

This series at the University of Rhode Island is made possible through the generosity of Amgen, West Greenwich, R.I.

Refreshments provided by the Joseph Estrin Endowment.