An Approach to Help Departments Meet the New ABET Process Safety Requirements

Abstract

The proposed program criteria changes by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET), for chemical, biochemical, biomolecular, and similarly named programs includes a fundamental awareness expectation of the hazards involved in chemical processing for a graduating chemical engineer. As of July 2010, these four new words were added at the end of present accreditation criteria: “and the hazards involved.” Hazards evaluations identify and control potential risks associated with the chemical process, reducing the consequences of process hazards, such as runaway reactions, toxic releases, fires or explosions through adequate process design. This paper describes how departments can combine and document the teachings available on the Safety and Chemical Engineering Education (SAChE) website into the students’ capstone senior design report.