Our Motivation

Significant industrial incidents, such as fires, explosions and gas releases, continue to occur resulting in serious injuries, loss of life, and damage to the environment and facilities.  These incidents are not solely germane to the oil & gas industry, but occur in a wide variety of industries such as chemical, pharmaceutical, agriculture, manufacturing, etc.  Yet, there are few centers conducting fundamental research to prevent such incidents in a broad array of industries.

In 2014 the School of Chemical Engineering established the ‘Purdue Process Safety and Assurance Center’ (P2SAC) as a center of process safety expertise. The center conducts fundamental science-based research, teaches process safety classes which all Purdue undergraduate Chemical Engineers are required to take, and provides a source of expertise for industry and other stakeholders.

West Pharmaceuticals - 2003; 6 fatalities		Imperial Sugar, Georgia - 2008; 14 fatalities
Tianjin, China - 2015; 173 fatalities		BP Texas City - 2005; 15 fatalities