Date: 21 August 2025
Time: 10:00-13:00
Location: Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick, Level 16, 333 Collins Street, Melbourne

Overview

Join us for a workshop where Trish Kerin shares her insights on the Formosa Plastics Corporation disaster and the important lessons in process safety. By breaking into groups to analyse what went wrong, students will not only learn about the incident itself but also apply process safety principles in a practical context. Students will consider factors like hazard identification, risk assessment, and emergency response planning during the group discussions. This hands-on approach will encourage collaboration and critical thinking among participants. Finger food and light refreshments will be served.

Process safety and broader impacts

On April 23, 2004, an explosion and fire killed five and seriously injured three workers at the Formosa Plastics Corporation, IL (Formosa-IL) PVC manufacturing facility in Illiopolis, Illinois. The explosion occurred after a large quantity of highly flammable vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) was inadvertently released from a reactor and ignited.

The explosion and fire that followed destroyed much of the facility and burned for two days. Local authorities ordered residents within one mile of the facility to evacuate.

Key issues:

• Human Factors
• Hazards Evaluation
• Incident Investigation

Workshop outline

1. Introduction (30 minutes): Welcome and overview of the workshop. Brief introduction to the Formosa Plastics Corporation disaster. Importance of process safety in chemical engineering.
2. Presentation by Trish Kerin (30 minutes): Detailed account of the 2004 disaster. Key safety failures and their consequences.
3. Group Activity: Identifying Failures (60 minutes): Split students into small groups. Task: Analyse the disaster using process safety principles (eg, hazard analysis, safety culture). Each group presents their findings (10 minutes each).
4. Broader Impacts Discussion (30 minutes): Reflect on the social, environmental, and ethical implications of their work. Discuss how chemical engineers can influence safety culture and public perception.
5. Wrap-Up and Takeaways (30 minutes): Summary of key learnings. Encouragement to apply insights to future projects. Q&A session.

This workshop will encourage engagement, collaboration, and critical thinking about the role of chemical engineers in promoting safety and sustainability.

All student connect events this year are FREE! To participate, you’ll need to be a student member of IChemE, which is also FREE for students throughout your undergraduate studies. Post graduate students can also join for FREE.

Registration is now open, places are limited.

Register to attend