Global Implementation of a Centralized Chemical Inventory System at The Dow Chemical Company

On January 21st, 2003, Members of AIChE's Center for Chemical Process Safety had the rare privilege to observe the safety procedures used at the Kennedy Space Center to load the hypergolic thruster fuels onto the Space Shuttle Columbia. Just 11 days later, the Columbia disintegrated on reentry. As details of the accident emerged from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, it became clear that there were many lessons that chemical engineers could learn from NASA's actions leading up to this tragic accident. This presentation will link the loss of the Columbia to the 2005 explosion at the BP Texas City refinery which killed 15 and injured 180, and highlight six key actions useful to prevent chemical accidents, protect the integrity of research, and maybe even improve your life.

Vaccines are the most effective way to prevent infectious diseases in the human population and polysaccharide-protein conjugate vaccines, developed for increased immunogenicity, are considered the safest and most successful vaccine product developed in the last 30 years.

Before marketing a new chemical, the manufacturer/importer, in order to meet the various national and international legal requirements, has to submit information in the form of a notification or registration (e.g. phys-chem, toxicological, ecotoxicological data) to support each Government’s risk assessment to determine whether the substance poses an unreasonable risk to the environment and/or human health. Some countries require pre-manufacture/import notification while for many jurisdictions, the chemical notification process is a tiered system requiring subsequent notifications as the annual amount of the imported or manufactured substance increases. Further, there are expanding global initiatives to assess chemicals already in the marketplace and subsequently take action on any chemicals found to be harmful to human health and/or the environment.

Chemical/Food & Beverage manufacturers facing increased pressure for cost optimization and higher yields, while simultaneously improving quality and reducing emissions, can now turn to AI-driven automation for key asset and process operations. The Petuum Industrial AI Autopilot product brings a remarkable new way to handle the complexities of chemical processes using advanced machine learning/deep learning and multi-layered data processing techniques to achieve profound understanding and real-time control.