Introduction and general concepts

Abstract

During the last 50 years the chemical industry has experienced change on a very large scale. As technological advances have given rise to the appearance of new materials, processes and even new fields of industrial activity, we have witnessed an almost exponential increase in the number and application of chemical products available on the market. Every year hundreds of new products are added to the tens of thousands already commercially available. In spite of the great variety of chemical products on offer, 90% of consumption is concentrated on only 5% of the available products.

In the summer of 1986 I had an opportunity to spend a few months at BASF Corporation working on a computer simulation project. One day I was visited by Joe Louvar, Director of Chemical Engineering, who asked me if I was interested in working on a few safety related projects. In total ignorance I replied, ‘You mean hard hats and safety shoes?’. Joe went on to explain some of the more fundamental aspects of safety, including reactor dynamics, two phase flow during reactor venting, gas dispersion models.… Prof. Daniel A. Crowl (Wayne State University) Chemical Engineering Education 22, 74 (1988)