Solvent design and inherent safety assessment of solvent alternatives for palm oil recovery

The concept of inherent safety is important in developing an inherently safer and user-friendly process. This paper discusses a new integrated approach of computer-aided product design and inherent safety assessment. Computer-aided Molecular Design (CAMD) approach was utilized in this work to identify potential alternative to n-hexane, the widely used industrial solvent in extracting residual palm oil from pressed palm fibre. The formulation of solvent mixtures was optimized to meet the targeted physical properties before being tested using the Soxhlet Extraction method. Inherent safety assessment to assess the solvent's flammability, toxicity, reactivity, and explosiveness was conducted on the new solvent mix, Mixture 1 (n-hexane + ethanol), Mixture 2 (n-hexane + acetone) and Mixture 3 (n-hexane + n-butanol). It was found that Mixture 1 and 3 are safer than n-hexane and able to extract more oil than n-hexane and Mixture 2. However, the utilization of the solvent is dependent on the end product from the residual palm oil.     

Systematic review on the implementation methodologies of inherent safety in chemical process

The accomplishments of inherent safety in the field of loss prevention thus far are impressive due to its scientific philosophy: reducing risks at source rather than adding engineered and procedural protections. Generally, the implementation of inherent safety can be done through a cohesive set of fourteen principles elucidated by Kletz and Amyotte. This work, guided by the fourteen principles, presents a systematic review on the implementation methodologies of inherent safety. Firstly, PRISMA procedure was adopted to select eligible literatures according to inclusive and exclusive criteria. After obtaining the selected literatures, the preference, level of application, and gaps in using these principles were critically analyzed. Of the fourteen principles, intensification, substitution, attenuation, simplification, limitation of effects, and avoidance of knock-on effects are preferable to implementing inherent safety in chemical process. Although the remaining principles are also potentially useful, they are not commonly used due to their costs and complexities of implementation. Overall, this work presents a complete spectrum to look across the implementation methodologies of inherent safety and concludes with some holistic and inclusive approaches as future research recommendations.     

Fun ride or risky transport: Golf cart-related injuries treated in U.S. emergency departments from 2007 through 2017

Introduction: Golf cart-related injuries constitute a substantial source of morbidity, most notably in pediatric populations. Despite the high rate of injuries, there have been no meaningful changes in golf cart design or legislation to reduce the overall burden of these injuries. This study sought to characterize the epidemiology of golf cart-related injuries treated in United States hospital emergency departments. Method: A retrospective analysis was conducted by using data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System for patients of all ages who were treated in emergency departments (EDs) (2007–2017) for a golf cart-related injury. Results: From 2007 through 2017, an estimated 156,040 (95% CI = 102,402–209,679) patients were treated in U.S. EDs for golf cart-related injuries. The average rate of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in children (1.62 per 100,000 children) was more than three times that of TBIs in adults (0.52 per 100,000 adults; rate ratio = 2.38; 95% CI = 2.36–2.41) and nearly twice that of TBIs in seniors (1.11 per 100,000 seniors; rate ratio = 1.21; 95% CI = 1.19–1.22). The rate of injuries in seniors increased significantly by 67.6% from 4.81 per 100,000 seniors in 2007 to 8.06 per 100,000 seniors in 2017 (slope = 0.096; p = 0.041). Conclusions: Golf cart use remains an important source of injury for people of all ages, especially in children. As use continues to increase, it is unlikely that golf cart-related injuries will decrease without substantial changes to product design, regulation, and/or legislation. Practical Applications: Use of golf carts pose a considerable risk of injury and morbidity; safety recommendations should be followed.     

Risk assessment and risk reduction of an acrylonitrile production plant

Reducing accident occurrence in petrochemical plants is crucial, thus appropriately allocating management resources to safety investment is a vital issue for corporate management as international competition intensifies. Understanding the priority of safety investment in a rational way helps achieve this objective.In this study, we targeted an acrylonitrile plant. First, Dow Chemical's Fire and Explosion Index (F&EI) identified the reaction process as having the greatest physical risk. We evaluated the severity of accidents in the reaction process using the Process Safety Metrics advocated by the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS); however, this index does not express damages a company actually experience. To solve this problem, we proposed a new metric that adds indirect cost to CCPS metrics. We adopted fault tree analysis (FTA) as a risk assessment method. In identifying top events and basic events, we attempted to improve the completeness of risk identification by considering accidents from the past, actual plant operation and equipment characteristics, natural disasters, and cyber-attacks and terrorist attacks. Consequently, we identified the top events with high priority in handling because of serious accidents as fire/explosion outside the reactor, fire/explosion inside the reactor, and reactor destruction. The new CCPS evaluation index proposed in this study found that fire and explosion outside the reactor has the highest severity. We considered the creation of the fault tree (FT) diagram of the top event, estimating the occurrence probability, and identifying the risk reduction part and capital investment aimed at risk reduction. As an economically feasible selection method for risk reduction investment, using the difference in loss amounts before and after safety investments indicated investment priority.     

Time perspective balance and team adaptation in dynamic task contexts

The concept of time perspective balance has attracted increased attention from scholars in the past decade, reflected in published evidence suggesting positive outcomes ranging from enhanced mood to life satisfaction for those individuals possessing balance among their past, present, and future time perspectives, and assumedly able to shift their time perspective to match situational demands. In this paper, we consider the notion of time perspective balance in an organizational setting within which much consequential adaptation often occurs—the team environment—and explore different configurations of time perspective balance in teams facing dynamic task contexts. Drawing from work on situational awareness, we first consider the mechanism by which time perspective balance likely influences individual adaptation in dynamic task-focused situations. Next, we postulate what types of team configurations—ones with more balanced time perspective uniformity or ones with more time perspective variety—might be more appropriate in dynamic contexts given key team conditions. We illustrate our analysis with examples from healthcare team settings and offer ideas for future research.     

Traffic climate and driver behaviors: The moderating role of driving skills in Turkey and China

Introduction: While road traffic accidents and fatalities are a worldwide problem, the rates of road traffic accidents and fatalities show differences among countries. Similarly, driver behaviors, traffic climate, and their relationships also show differences among countries. The aim of the current study is to investigate the moderating effect of driving skills on the relationship between traffic climate and driver behaviors by country. (Turkey and China). Method: There were 294 Turkish drivers and 292 Chinese drivers, and they completed the Traffic Climate Scale, the Driving Skills Inventory, and the Driver Behavior Questionnaire. The moderated moderation analyses were conducted with Hayes PROCESS tool on SPSS. Results: The results showed that safety skills moderated the relationship between internal requirements and violations both in Turkey and China. Safety skills also moderated the relationship between internal requirements and errors only in China and the relationship between functionality and violations in Turkey. Perceptual-motor skills moderated the relationships between external affective demands and errors, and also the relationship between internal requirements and positive driver behaviors in Turkey. It can be inferred that driving skills has different influences on traffic climate-driver behaviors relationship in different cultures and there might be cultural differences in the evaluation of drivers’ own driving skills. Practical Applications: Among driving skills, safety skills have a more critical role to increase road safety by decreasing number of violations. Interventions to increase safety skills of drivers might be promising for road safety.     

A risk reduction approach for academic research labs: A case study on naphthenic corrosion

Academic research and development (R&D) labs are a significant part of academic life. But there can be physical, environmental, and experiment quality risks associated to this activity. Academic labs can present specific experiments, which have associated risks for researchers. Academic labs are also characterized by a high turnover of students and many of them are not fully aware of the level of physical and environmental risks of their activity. Accidents in academic labs with injuries and loss of life are facts that have to be tackled through risk management approaches. The objective of this paper is to present an integrated management approach, tackling risk management and analysis methods. HAZOP (Hazard and Operability Study) and PFMEA (Process Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) enabled, respectively, the analysis of safety and environmental risks. By quantifying the level of risk according to the type of experiment and the research context, it is possible to provide safety to the system. The resulting Digital Poka-Yoke – a mistake-proofing approach – has brought about the desired quality of results in experiments. The proposed approach was validated through a case study monitoring naphthenic corrosion experiments conducted by the Lab of Surface Electrochemistry and Corrosion (LSEC) at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR). As a consequence, this approach is currently in use at this lab.     

Recent application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in process safety and loss prevention: A review

In recent years, significant progress has been made to ensure that process industries are among the safest workplaces in the world. However, with the increasing complexity of existing technologies and new problems brought about by emerging technologies, a strong need still exists to study the fundamentals of process safety and predict possible scenarios. This is attained by conducting the corresponding consequence modeling and risk assessments. As a result of the continuous advancement of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools and exponentially increased computation capabilities along with better understandings of the underlying physics, CFD simulations have been applied widely in the areas of process safety and loss prevention to gain new insights, improve existing models, and assess new hazardous scenarios. In this review, 126 papers from 2010 to 2020 have been included in order to systematically categorize and summarize recent applications of CFD for fires, explosions, dispersions of flammable and toxic materials from accidental releases, incident investigations and reconstructions, and other areas of process safety. The advantages of CFD modeling are discussed and the future of CFD applications in this research area is outlined.     

松花江野生鱼类重金属残留分析与评价

以松花江流域的野生鱼类为研究对象,在松花江流域选取松林、大顶子山、佳木斯3个具有代表性的点位,在2014—2016年的每年5月底6月初采集鲤鱼和鲫鱼样品,3年内共制备45个鲤鱼单样,44个鲤鱼混样,30个鲫鱼混样,共计119个。采用电感耦合等离子体-质谱法对鱼类肌肉组织中残留的As、Cd、Cr、Pb、Hg 5种重金属进行检测。检测结果显示,As、Cd、Cr、Pb、Hg 5种重金属全部检出,检测结果全部达标,达标率为100%。根据检测结果采用单因子指数法和金属污染指数法等评价了松花江流域鱼体重金属残留状况及食用安全性,评价结果为松花江流域鱼类重金属残留量相对较少,鱼体健康,食用安全。     

出口小家电产品环境适应性试验中常见问题及分析

本文介绍了小家电产品在环境检测中常见的安全问题,分析其通常存在的不符合IEC标准的条款和产生的原因,提出了解决类似问题的措施,从而提高出口小家电产品的安全性能.