Risks in Chemical Engineering

Importance of the process control in Chemical Engineering

Natalia Len Patio
October 3th 2016

Chemical engineers have many responsibilities; they produce almost every material and
product found in the daily life, and it is possible because there are physical, chemical and
biochemical transformation processes that they do. These processes imply that risks in this
field are numerous in terms of security, product quality, equipment manage and production.
A system of process control is fundamental to have an idea about how are those
characteristics in the process and it gives a guide to use in case there are risk situations; and
that is the reason for the implementation of it. Without a system control the characteristics
listed before are completely unknown, and it can cause damage in the product, in the plant
and several affections in peoples health.
In chemical processes, the main intention is produce a product with clear specifications, it
means, for example, if a company produce Phthalic Anhydride (PAN), it must be a
transparent liquid, with low content of water or solids (less than 0,01%), with boiling and
melting point defined (280C and 131C respectively) and other specifications (Ray &
Sneesby, 1998). To achieve this, the plant engineer must evaluate the conditions of
temperature, pressure, reactive quality and concentration, and all variables include in the
process, and determinate what values of those conditions are the appropriate to accomplish
the specifications. But the problem is not find the operative values; the real problem is
guarantee those values will remain and determinate what is the impact of a variation of one
of these conditions and how it affects the quantity or quality product (Romagnoli &

Palazoglu, 2005). A simple change in 1C in the temperature of the reactor, could cause the
reaction starts to produce another compound, like Maleic Anhydride.
There are not only risks in terms of the product; safety of the equipment and operators,
even people living near the plant, is vulnerable. Industrial processes sometimes use
dangerous chemicals and materials, which can be harmful with only be vacuumed and
without an appropriate system of ventilation, manage and storage, these chemicals can be
present in air surrounding the chemical plant and cause extreme illnesses like cancer
(Ogunnaike & Ray, 1994). To show the role of processes control, lets continue with PAN
example. In this process are not used dangerous chemicals, but there are conditions
absolutely extreme like the temperature in the reactor. To produce PAN from o-xylene and
air, the temperature must be 230C, and the liquid that remove that heat is melting salts; if
one of those streams have a leakage, a worker could be burnt, but a more serious problem:
this reaction generates heat, and if the melting salt cannot remove the whole heat, the
reactor could explode and causing death of miles of people.
As it was shown, risks in chemical engineering are various and these could be fatal not only
referring to human health, in environmental, economic, sociable way too, and imply a
system process control is essential to operate an industrial process in a better way. Of
course, a control process does not mean the process is completely safety; but it can reduce
risk factors and maybe grant a warning with enough time to save uncountable lives. In this
field, certainly, the risk causes more impact in the society than other fields, and being aware
about that, is the best way to prevent accidents which can affect an entire population like
exposed before.