Rosa Nomen
Dept. Chemical Engineering. Institut Químic de Sarriá. University Ramon Llull
08017 Barcelona, Spain


On-line Information and Knowledge Management in Chemical Process Safety.
S2S, a Gateway for Plant and Process Safety
 

Abstract

The improvement of the chemical process safety is steel a real objective not only for its effect in human health and sustainable industrial development but also for the necessity to increase the industrial competitiveness around Europe .

Internet information system allows us to accede to huge quantities of information from over the world. Specifically regarding safety subjects, the existing information is so many that by doing a simple search, we may obtain a lot of pages of information related to assessors, industrial associations, research centres, software suppliers, websites of official institutes, or international programmes. All of them are offering information on process safety and covering diverse production sectors, free or by cheap or even expensive subscriptions.

These circumstances do not allow seizing the Internet possibilities, since people in safety, health and environmental department can not afford to spend a lot of time for making searches, and then evaluate the results to identify the most relevant, reliable information and knowledge.

The European network “S2S, a gateway for plant and process safety” aims to organise safety information for chemical processes in a reference point: http://www.S-2-S.org in order to maintain safety awareness. The design of this webportal has been elaborated in a way that the information can be easily encountered and accessible. At this end, it has been created a experts staff, who have organised the information in seven chapters: material safety data sheets, safety management, chemical reactions, explosions, industrial fires, measurement methods and, protective equipment including human factors.

In each chapter, the S2S team is structuring the available information in some items like specialised websites, standards, norms, and legislation, good practices, self-assessment tools, software to identify potential accidents or learned lessons. In addition, the webportal contains a glossary, which includes the common terminology used in process safety. All these terms are organised also in a structured list or a logical tree to provide like a guide to all those users not very well familiarised on all safety aspects. In addition, a short definition is included for each term, and for some subjects, classical references are cited.

This structured list has been prepared to be used friendly by people in small and medium enterprises, in small production sites and in all places in which human resources is a scarce resource.

This communication comprehends the development of the logic structure designed and its multiple interconnections.

References  

Biography

Dr. Nomen obtained the degree of Chemical Engineer from the "Institut Químic de Sarrià" (Barcelona, Spain) in 1979, as specialist in organic chemistry. Complementing these studies, Dr. Nomen obtained a PhD in Chemical Engineering at the same Institut in

1982, and an additional speciality in Chemical Engineering. She obtained as well the degree of Industrial Engineer by the Universitat Ramon Llull in 1993.

From 1982 to the present date, Dr. Nomen has held the position of professor at the Institut Químic de Sarrià and, since 1992, she is Full Professor at the Universitat Ramon Llull in its Chemical Engineering Department. Dr. Nomen is the co-ordinator of the Master's program on "Health and Safety Occupational" and from 2002 has been the Vice-Rector of International Relations of Universitat Ramon Llull.

Her academic activity covers several areas, such as numerical and graphical methods, physical chemistry, chemical engineering, and since 1982, applied thermodynamics and industrial chemistry, additionally overseeing a number of short courses related essentially with calorimetry, thermal analysis and risk assessment, thermo-chemical risk, and risk identification for graduated and Ph.D. students.

She is responsible for a pilot plant equipped with a glass reactor to work at normal pressures, stainless steel reactors for high pressure reactions, a reaction calorimeter, introduced to Spain by herself in 1988, and an on-line FTIR.

In 1983, in collaboration with her husband, Prof. Dr. Julià Sempere, a research group (PQAT) was created to develop process for fine chemicals, the main objective being to obtain higher production using less raw material input, and having less environmental impact. Currently she is the co-director of PQAT. The main investigation activities being developed by PQAT are related to,

Dr. Nomen has directed 9 PhD's, 4 theses of Master degree, and 71 diploma theses. She has also published 79 articles in several international and national journals.

In 1988 Dr. Nomen was the Spanish representative at the European Contact Group on Runaway Reactions. Since 1991 she has been a member of the working group "Reaktiontechnik sicherheitstechnisch schwierriger Prozesse" of DECHEMA Society. Since 1992 has been co-director of the group recognised by the Catalan Government to validate the risk analysis documents on Major Accidents according to the Seveso Directive. Since 1997 has been a member of the advisory board of Grupo Español de Calorimetría y Análisis Térmico (GECAT) and delegate at the International Council of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (ICTAC). She was the co-ordinator of the European Thematic Network on Hazard Assessment of Highly Reactive Systems-HarsNet.

At the present, Dr. Nomen is the executive vice president of the European Federation of Chemical Engineers-EFCE, scientific editor of the Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, permanent invited member at the working group for hazard assessment of highly reactive and complex systems from the German Society of Chemical engineers-DECHEMA, co-ordinator of the European network S2S, A gateway for plant and process safety, and member of the advisory board of the European Technology Platform on Industrial Safety.