HCC Global Energy COE participates in chemical process safety training
Jan 25, 2018
Houston Community College (HCC) professors recently attended training on process technology best practices sponsored by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) at LyondellBasell. Global Energy Center of Excellence faculty Dr. Ammar Alkhawaldeh and Sazar Ali represented HCC among 30 engineering professors from 16 colleges that included seven colleges from the Middle East.
The workshop is as part of AIChE’s Undergraduate Process Safety Learning Initiative, a multi-pronged global program that will define how the next generation of chemical engineers is prepared to enter the workforce. These industry-led classes provide professors the tools and information they need to incorporate safety training into their curriculum to ensure students graduate with a working knowledge of chemical process safety.
The Process Safety workshop also provided an opportunity for faculty to learn from industry experts about a variety of topics including loss prevention strategy, hazard identification methods and risk assessment, dispersion and consequence modeling, inherently safe design, and evaluating the ability of safeguards.
HCC partners with LyondellBasell and other industry leaders in many ways, which help to meet the demands of the current and future workforce. Partnerships also help to ensure that faculty is continuously in sync with the latest trends in industry and that students transition into the workforce with the tools necessary to successfully pursue their career pathway. The partnership with LyondellBasell has also yielded opportunities for mock interview sessions for HCC students in the Process Technology program as well as job opportunities.
The Process Technology program educates and trains technicians who control and monitor various industrial and plant processes. Areas of employment include: petrochemicals and refining, food and beverage processing, pharmaceuticals and biomanufacturing, paper and pulp, oil and gas exploration, energy and power generation, water and waste water treatment, chemical and agricultural manufacturing, environmental safety, and brewing and distilling process industries.
For more information about the Global Energy Center of Excellence, visit hccs.edu/programs.
