Safety and compliance the focus of 3-Day Biochemical Manufacturing Workshop

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September 2, 2021

Lincoln, Neb. —Nebraska ranks second in the nation as a producer of ethanol, employing over 1,400 individuals across the state.  Maximizing efficiency, safety and regulatory compliance drives the need for effective operations and management training.  The Nebraska Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), the UNL College of Engineering, and the Nebraska Ethanol Board continue to work together to provide annual opportunities to educate and reinforce best practices for the biochemical industry.  The latest offering is “Process Hazard Analysis”, a three-day workshop designed to properly plan, execute and utilize process hazard plans and tools. The hands-on class is being held October 26-28 at Novozymes in Blair, NE.

Hunter Flodman, associate professor of practice for UNL’s College of Engineering has made the rounds to many of the state’s ethanol plants, large and small.  “Safety has always been a top priority of the ethanol industry,” says Flodman.  “Every plant maintains a Process Safety Management program with the purpose of identifying hazards and managing risk.  Our goal was to create a series of trainings that would allow ethanol plants to share best practices related to process safety while also learning from renowned experts like Philip Myers.”     

Since 2017, the Nebraska MEP and its partners have provided workshops specific to the biochemical industry, including “Process Safety Management” and “Process Control Essentials”, most recently offered in August. “For the past 3 years we have offered a very good Process Safety Management course,” says Matthew Jorgensen, project specialist for the Nebraska MEP.  “That was a 3-day overview of the must have elements of any capable PSM system for chemical production facilities, especially as it relates to OSHA’s regulatory requirements. For this year, we decided it was time to take one of these critical elements and go much more in depth.”

Through the support of the College of Engineering, the Nebraska Ethanol Board, and Novozymes, the MEP enlisted Philip M. Myers, president of Advantage Risk Solutions to lead the PHA workshop. ”Process Hazard Analysis is arguably the single most important part of a process safety management and risk management program,” says Myers. “The focus of PHA is identification of hazardous scenarios.  If you don’t identify them, you can’t manage them.”

The “hands-on” aspect of the workshop also presents a deeper learning experience for the participant.  “This course will provide in-depth training in Process Hazard Analysis,” Myers added. “From regulatory requirements and recent actions, to hazard identification methodologies, how to ensure effective studies are conducted, identify, and provide information and resources needed, and how to best manage outputs of team studies for decision making and implementation in the plant.  It’s the “A-Z” PHA course for those who manage and oversee PHAs as part of process safety and risk management or EHS programs, and for technical personnel that participate in them.”

Course participants receive certificates of completion and participants are awarded 20 professional development hours (2.0 CEUs). Partial tuition reimbursement is offered to the first 20 qualifying registrants by the Nebraska Ethanol Board.  For detailed information and advance registration, go to https://go.unl.edu/processsafety

About the Nebraska Manufacturing Extension Partnership

The Nebraska MEP is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) program. Residing within the U.S. Department of Commerce, MEP was created in 1988 with the intent of enhancing the productivity and technological performance of U.S. manufacturers. Today, the MEP program consists of 51 centers in every state and Puerto Rico with over 400 service locations and 1,300 technical experts working together to advance and strengthen U.S. manufacturing.  https://nemep.unl.edu

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