Lessons from an Accident – Put Chemistry back into Chemical Engineering

On December 19, 2007 a reactor exploded in the plant of T2 Laboratories at Jacksonville, Florida. 4 people lost their lives and 14 were hospitalized. More than 100 firefighters battled what many eyewitnesses described as a ‘hellish inferno’. Pieces of the plant were found 400 m away from the blast site. The plant was manufacturing MCMT, a gasoline additive.

So why should this accident make news again 21 months after its occurrence? The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) which went into the reasons of the accident has published its final draft report. The report says that the accident occurred because of a runaway chemical reaction due to inadequate reactor cooling system. But that is merely stating a matter of fact. What makes the report so extraordinary is its finding that the 2 owners of the company were unaware of the potential or consequences of a runaway chemical reaction, despite their undergraduate degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering. The report minces no words to make the startling observation that most baccalaureate chemical engineering curricula in the U.S. do not specifically address reactive hazard recognition or management. It is a most harsh indictment of the state of chemical engineering education in USA. If things are this bad in the country which taught chemical engineering to rest of the world, I shudder to reflect upon the situation prevailing in Indian Universities.

CSB’s report calls for improving the education of chemical engineering students on reactive chemical hazards and asks the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) to work together to include reactive chemical education in baccalaureate chemical engineering curricula across the country. Our universities need to follow suit without any further ado. It is time to put chemistry back into chemical engineering.