CN3135 Process Safety, Health and Environment is a 3 MC module that focuses on the risks and safety required in any process related to Chemical Engineering. It covers concepts like source models, dispersion models, ignition sources, probability and sustainability.
Assessment
10% Take Home Quiz (Group Work)
30% HAZOP Project (Group Work)
60% Finals (2 hours, Open Book)
30% HAZOP Project (Group Work)
60% Finals (2 hours, Open Book)
Lecturer:
Prof Reginald Tan Beng Hee
Prof Reginald Tan Beng Hee
Tutor:
Prof Reginald Tan Beng Hee
Prof Reginald Tan Beng Hee
Textbooks/Readings
Chemical Process Safety 3rd Edition by Daniel A. Crowl and Joseph F. Louvar. I would recommend buying/renting/borrowing the textbook as we often need to refer to the graphs and appendices from the textbook. Plus the finals is open book, meaning you can bring this textbook into the exam hall. The textbook supplements the lecture notes a lot as well, thus I really recommend purchasing/renting one.
Lectures
Chemical Process Safety 3rd Edition by Daniel A. Crowl and Joseph F. Louvar. I would recommend buying/renting/borrowing the textbook as we often need to refer to the graphs and appendices from the textbook. Plus the finals is open book, meaning you can bring this textbook into the exam hall. The textbook supplements the lecture notes a lot as well, thus I really recommend purchasing/renting one.
Lectures
There is only 1 lecture per week which is the 2 hour long one. But usually, the lectures are only around 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes long. Take note that my review for the lectures and lecture notes from now on only applies to this Prof. If another Prof is teaching you this module, then the experience is likely to be different (unlike the level 2000 modules where the experience may still be around the same even if different Profs teach the module). Sooo, I would like to say that Prof Tan isn't real good in preparing for lectures. His lecture notes are very brief and lack critical information. Many of the important formulas are not present in the slides and I have to read the textbook by myself in order to learn the formulas required to tackle certain questions. (There was one time he only uploaded the lecture slides when he entered the LT during the lecture time slot and used that computer at the front of the LT to upload the notes.)
His lectures are also rather brief. Sometimes, the only reason why I attend his lectures is because he will tell us the portions of the topic that will not be tested for the final exam. AND there are no webcasts for this module as well. Overall, I felt like most of the concepts I gained from the module was from reading the textbook, and not from attending the lectures. The portion on sustainability was very applicable to real world situations (pollution prevention and action against global warming) but then again since his notes were brief, I had to google some information by myself.
His lectures are also rather brief. Sometimes, the only reason why I attend his lectures is because he will tell us the portions of the topic that will not be tested for the final exam. AND there are no webcasts for this module as well. Overall, I felt like most of the concepts I gained from the module was from reading the textbook, and not from attending the lectures. The portion on sustainability was very applicable to real world situations (pollution prevention and action against global warming) but then again since his notes were brief, I had to google some information by myself.
Tutorial
Tutorials took place once a week, and they were 1 hour long. Prof Tan is better at teaching in tutorials, as compared to lectures. Usually, at the beginning of the class, he would allow some of us to write the tutorial answers on the board so that we can get bonus marks for the module. Obviously I like this because you will still get the bonus mark even if you answered the question wrongly. So, just go to the front and write your answer.
Prof Tan will also give a brief summary of the topic and then go into the questions. He would give us tips/advises that will greatly help for the final exam. Thus, tutorial is a definite must go. This is also because his solution power point slides are also very very brief and most of the important points are only mentioned during tutorial. So, don't miss tutorials.
Take-Home Quiz
There is one take-home quiz for this module. It consists of 2 questions which covered topics from the first half of the module. The deadline for the quiz was on Week 8. We were required to submit our answers on IVLE. The quiz is group work and we had to get into groups of 3-4 students. The first question covered calculations while the second required us to write an essay about an incident involving hazardous scenarios. It wasn't too difficult and plus, it's group work. The quiz can be done within a day or two, so you don't have to worry too much about it.
HAZOP Project
Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOP) Project/report requires us to think up of risky scenarios and come up with solutions on how to mitigate/avoid such scenarios. Examples are like no flow in feed stream or no agitation in reactor tank. This is a group project and it is the same group as the take-home quiz group. Again, it is group work, so working together to come out with consequences and solutions to hazardous situations wasn't tooo difficult. You can refer to senior reports as well for reference while writing your own report.
The above 40% from HAZOP Project and take-home quiz wasn't too tough and thus, most of us did well, causing the bell curve to be real steep (meaning your grade is actually dependent more on the final exam).
Prof Tan will also give a brief summary of the topic and then go into the questions. He would give us tips/advises that will greatly help for the final exam. Thus, tutorial is a definite must go. This is also because his solution power point slides are also very very brief and most of the important points are only mentioned during tutorial. So, don't miss tutorials.
Take-Home Quiz
There is one take-home quiz for this module. It consists of 2 questions which covered topics from the first half of the module. The deadline for the quiz was on Week 8. We were required to submit our answers on IVLE. The quiz is group work and we had to get into groups of 3-4 students. The first question covered calculations while the second required us to write an essay about an incident involving hazardous scenarios. It wasn't too difficult and plus, it's group work. The quiz can be done within a day or two, so you don't have to worry too much about it.
HAZOP Project
Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOP) Project/report requires us to think up of risky scenarios and come up with solutions on how to mitigate/avoid such scenarios. Examples are like no flow in feed stream or no agitation in reactor tank. This is a group project and it is the same group as the take-home quiz group. Again, it is group work, so working together to come out with consequences and solutions to hazardous situations wasn't tooo difficult. You can refer to senior reports as well for reference while writing your own report.
The above 40% from HAZOP Project and take-home quiz wasn't too tough and thus, most of us did well, causing the bell curve to be real steep (meaning your grade is actually dependent more on the final exam).
Final Exam
The final exam was 2 hours long and was open book. It consisted of 2 questions. One question was about a storage tank and questions requiring calculations were asked. For the second question, we were given a text to read and the questions were essay type of questions which are related to the text itself. Basically, the second question covers the pollution prevention and sustainability portion of the module. You can view the final exam paper I took here. Since there were 2 questions, I would advice spending an hour each on each question. Question 1 definitely took up more time because there were calculations involved. AND there's another point to take note. Based on the past year papers I've done + from the actual final paper I did, Prof Tan would always like to test one or two terminologies that we've never heard before. Plus, these terms cannot be found in the textbook. All we can do is to make some form of inference and do our working from there. (For the paper I did, it was question 1d) Well, I tried to infer for my paper and hopefully, I inferred correctly hahaha.
As for question 2, you can see the tips I've written in my notes. You can view my notes here.
Expected Grade: B+
Final Grade: A+
Final Comments
I really didn't expect to score well for this module. Most of the help I got were from my friends, the textbook and the internet and I actually felt it was my least confident module this semester. I guess researching more on sustainablity and practising the past year calculation questions helped me do well for this module.
I actually have a small wish for this module to be 4 MCs because safety is actually a rather hugh issue in chemical plants and the Prof wasn't able to fully cover all the concepts in the textbook as well.
I really didn't expect to score well for this module. Most of the help I got were from my friends, the textbook and the internet and I actually felt it was my least confident module this semester. I guess researching more on sustainablity and practising the past year calculation questions helped me do well for this module.
I actually have a small wish for this module to be 4 MCs because safety is actually a rather hugh issue in chemical plants and the Prof wasn't able to fully cover all the concepts in the textbook as well.
Stay tuned for more updates.
- Alan
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