Assessment and analysis of a large-scale chemical process for secured design and operation using dynamic simulation

When abnormal conditions occur or under terrorist attack, chemical processes may cause violent explosions, toxic release and loss of life. The vulnerability is clear, especially for those processes operated at high temperature and pressure, with fast material and energy flows, and involving hazardous materials. To ensure process security and safety, systematic and effective design and operational strategies must be identified and verified.;The first step in this mission is the accurate assessment of security status of the processes. Lou et al proposed a zone based security assessment methodology. This methodology employs security-bearing process dynamic modeling and simulation method to perform security assessment. It can predict process behavior under various scenarios, assess process security status quantitatively, foresee possible security failures, and give a critical review of design and operation policy to secure operation.;In this Thesis, an ethylene oxide production process has been studied. This process involves various unit operations, including multi-tubular plug flow reactor operated under high pressure and temperature, separation units, heat exchangers and sputters. The chemicals involved in this process possess serious environmental and health hazards. The dynamic responses of the system under different disturbances that may pose serious security threat were analyzed and different design and operation schemes were evaluated from security point of view.