A team of fourth-year chemical engineering students took top prize in the 2012 Minerva Safety Engineering Design competition. Held annually by Minerva Safety Management Education, the competition is intended to encourage colleges and universities to incorporate safety management education into core curricula.
Alessandra Pizzolato, Melanie Hazlett, Ji-Young Ahn, and Marla Desat redesigned the Sunrise Propane depot in Toronto that exploded in August 2008. Desat, the team’s captain, says the project was based on the Ontario Fire Marshall’s report on the incident. Design decisions were determined according to the new requirements in Ontario for propane storage and handling and based on estimations of hazard distances and public areas and buildings, including schools.
The winning designfeatures a laneway to direct travel to the filling area and prevent dangerous maneuvers and cluttering, an emergency stop system which is duplicated in a control room, and controlled entry and exit gates. Desat points out the project was not conducted with Sunrise Propane in anyway.
The four members of the team, supervised by Mary Robinson, will convocate this Saturday.