Integration of safety and health aspects in a simultaneous process and molecular design framework

Abstract The aspects of safety and occupational health have been included as part of the design criteria in many process and molecular design problems. However, the main design objectives of these works are the molecular properties and process variables that offer the optimized process objective. Safety and health criteria are not strongly emphasized in these problems, since they are often introduced as design constraints or are not evaluated in an extensive manner. In this research, a novel simultaneous process-molecular design framework by incorporating safety and occupational health aspects is presented to ensure the developed system does not pose much harm. The hazard level is evaluated with the utilization of safety and health indexes to examine chemical properties and process conditions that may bring about potential risks. The overall hazard level is quantified through the use of index scores. The proposed strategy is demonstrated on a gas-absorption case study to design a solvent with its corresponding process that has optimized property functionalities, process performance, and safety and health attributes. This framework allows user to identify the process or molecular factors that may contribute to high risk potential, so that the appropriate safety and health measures can be implemented in the designed process.