Reactive hazard associated with chemicals is a major safety issue in process industries. This kind of hazard has caused the occurrence of many accidents, leading to fatalities, injuries, property damage and environment pollution. Reactive hazards can be eliminated or minimized by applying Inherently Safer Design (ISD) principles such as "substitute" or "moderate" strategies. However, ISD would not be a feasible option for industry without an efficient methodology for chemical hazard assessment, which provides the technical basis for applying ISD during process design. In this research, a systematic chemical hazard assessment methodology was developed for assisting the implementation of ISD in the design of inherently safer process. This methodology incorporates the selection of safer chemicals and determination of safer process conditions, which correspond to "substitute" and "moderate" strategies in ISD. The application of this methodology in conjunction with ISD technique can effectively save the time and investment spent on the process design. As part of selecting safer chemicals, prediction models were developed for predicting hazardous properties of reactive chemicals. Also, a hazard index was adopted to rate chemicals according to reactive hazards. By combining the prediction models with the hazard index, this research can provide important information on how to select safer chemicals for the processes, which makes the process chemistry inherently safer. As part of determining safer process conditions, the incompatibility of Methyl Ethyl Ketone Peroxide (MEKPO) with iron oxide was investigated. It was found that iron oxide at low levels has no impact on the reactive hazards of MEKPO as well as the operational safety. However, when iron oxide is beyond 0.3 wt%, it starts to change the kinetics of MEKPO runaway reaction and even the reaction mechanism. As a result, with the presence of a certain level of iron oxide (> 0.3 wt%), iron oxide can intensify the reactive hazards of MEKPO and impose higher risk to process operations. The investigation results can help to determine appropriate materials for fabricating process equipment and safer process conditions.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (pt. 8, p. 1-7). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Carleton University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-127). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.C.R.P.)--California Polytechnic State University, 2009. / Mode of access: Internet. Title from PDF title page; viewed on July 10, 2009. Major professor: Dr. Michael Boswell. "Presented to the faculty of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo." "In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree [of] Master of City and Regional Planning." "June 2009." Includes bibliographical references (p. 66).

Thesis (Ph.D)--City Planning, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: French, Steven P.; Committee Member: Drummond, William; Committee Member: Goodno, Barry; Committee Member: McCarthy, Patrick; Committee Member: Yang, Jiawen. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Thesis (M.S.)--Missouri University of Science and Technology, 2008. / Vita. The entire thesis text is included in file. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed June 5, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 126-132).

Diss. Nr. 2944 Wirtschaftswiss. St. Gallen, 2004. / Literaturverz.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). Four maps in pocket. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 224-243). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-147). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.