DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A SMART ADVISORY SYSTEM FOR HAZARDOUS MATERIALS TRANSPORTATION RISK ANALYSIS VIA QUANTITATIVE APPROACHES

Safe transportation of hazardous materials is critical as it has a high potential of catastrophic accidents depending on the amount of transported product, its hazardous characteristics and the environmental conditions. Consequently, an efficient, smart and reliable intervention is essential to enhance prediction on the impacts of transportation hazards. Although various risk assessment techniques have been used in industry and regulatory bodies, they were developed for evaluating risk of hazardous materials for fixed installation cases instead of moving risk sources. This study applies the Transportation Risk Analysis (TRA), which is an extension of a well-known Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA) technique in developing and design a Smart Advisory Systems (SAS), to determine the safest routes for transportation of hazardous materials according to Malaysia scenario

Risk analysis for the road transportation of hazardous chemicals in Malaysia: a methodology

Quantitative risk analysis was recognized as a proper method for assessing the risk level of a hazardous activity, however, when this technique is applied to a transport case, there were several parameters and assumptions need to be considered before starting the Transportation Risk Analysis (TRA) calculation. This paper aims to describe how the modified TRA methodology is used for predicting the accident scenarios and their impact to humans and environment. The analytical technique was applied to a case study of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by road tankers. The transportation of LPG via five existing routes was studied in detail, and the corresponding societal risk were evaluated and compared

Fatality assessment for high pressure reactor of methanol production plantsfrom CO2 hydrogenation / Mohd Aizad Ahmad and Zulkifli Abdul Rashid

New technology emerges for carbon dioxide hydrogenation where captured carbon dioxide reacts with hydrogen for methanol production using high pressure condition up to 442 bar. The research on high pressure process focus on how much percentage of carbon dioxide and hydrogen converted, accompanied with how much percentage of methanol selectivity. There is no comprehensive study on safety, especially in term of consequences to human fatalities if incident occurred at this highpressure plant. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to assess percentage of fatalities occur for reactor methanol (MeOH) plant operates at high pressure of 442 bar. It studies the possibility on (i) various events occurred in term of toxicity, thermal radiation, and overpressure; and (ii) estimation of percentage of fatalities when all that events occurred in comparison with reference plant operating at reactor pressure of 76 bar. Process plant is simulated using HYSYS and the obtained mass density of mixture, mass fraction, and volume fraction of chemical are used to calculate amount of toxicity (ppm), thermal radiation (kW/m2 ), and overpressure (psi) using consequence model simulated in ALOHA software. Threat zones generated by ALOHA software are then exported to the MARPLOT software to observe the area affected by the case study. The studied methanol reactor releases chemical mixture consists of hydrogen, carbon dioxide, MeOH, carbon monoxide (CO), and water, which only water is not considered as hazardous material. The release of chemical mixture observed for 10 mm, 25 mm, and 160 mm leakage, simulated at day and night conditions. The result for plant that operates at pressure of 442 bar has the highest severity of 44% fatality, which comes from the event of flammable methanol jet fire at daytime, leakage of 160 mm hole size. Meanwhile, for plant operating at 76 bar, the highest fatality is 27%, occurred from toxicity release of carbon dioxide at nighttime, leakage of 160 mm hole size

Methanol production using carbon capture technology: An overview / Mohd Aizad Ahmad and Zulkifli Abdul Rashid

Carbon emission to environment cause global warming problems. Research on carbon capture technology has been widely established including pre-combustion, post-combustion and oxyfuel method. Utilisation of carbon from capture process has been developed for methanol production. Various separation method of CO2 from gas has been highlighted. Challenges and potentials of methanol production using carbon capture utilisation (CCU) should be taken into account. The major challenge for methanol production from carbon capture is to produce catalysts which are selective, lower cost and long term recyclable which will allow the reduction of carbon dioxide to methanol. Researchers also discussed how to produce minimum cost of sustainable hydrogen supply to react with CO2. For oxyfuel combustion technology, the challenges are the capital cost and energy consumption mostly from cryogenic air separation unit (ASU). An overview of methanol production using various method of carbon capture has been discussed in this paper

Tinjauan Terhadap Tahap Tekanan Pelajar Universiti Semasa Pandemik COVID-19

Pandemik Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) yang melanda Malaysia dan seluruh dunia telah memberikan pelbagai implikasi yang sangat besar terutamanya dalam aspek kesihatan mental. Golongan pelajar merupakan golongan yang berisiko mengalami tekanan akibat norma baharu yang wujud susulan pandemik ini. Justeru, kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti tahap tekanan pelajar dan mengenal pasti pengaruh jantina dalam menentukan tahap tekanan pelajar. Kajian ini adalah kajian kuantitatif yang menggunakan reka bentuk tinjauan. Seramai 400 orang pelajar dari sebuah institusi pengajian tinggi di Malaysia dipilih melalui kaedah persampelan rawak mudah. Soal selidik Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) yang dialih bahasa telah digunakan. Analisis statistik deskriptif dalam bentuk peratus kekerapan dan ujian t-test dijalankan melalui perisian Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Versi 26. Kajian mendapati bahawa seramai 340 pelajar (85%) mengalami tekanan pada tahap sederhana. Selain itu, tidak terdapat perbezaan antara jantina lelaki dan perempuan dalam menentukan tahap tekanan pelajar. Konklusinya, kajian ini amatlah signifikan dalam mengetahui tahap tekanan pelajar semasa pandemik ini. Ia boleh dijadikan sebagai garis panduan terutamanya kepada institusi pendidikan dalam mengatur strategi bagi membantu dalam meningkatkan dan mengekalkan kegembiraan pelajar

SCIA: GIS-based software for assessing the impacts from chemical industrial accidents

This study is performed to develop a comprehensive software package entitled “simulation of chemical industrial accident (SCIA).” The SCIA can be integrated with geographical information system (GIS) to predict and display the risk and consequence of chemical hazards from two categories of hazardous materials, namely toxic and flammable materials. This paper describes how the existing models are used for predicting accident scenarios and their impact to humans and the environment. The technique for assessing the consequences from chemical accidents is developed by integrating the models in the system with the help of the GIS tools. The software is coded in Visual Basic, and is compatible with Windows working environments. The validity of the software has been confirmed by comparing the results of several applications with other commercial software. The software is a user-friendly and effective tool for evaluating the consequences of major chemical accidents, process decision making for land-use planning namely locating suitable hazardous installations, hazardous waste disposal areas and emergency response plan

Study of Internal Pressure Impact on Sphere Tank Towards Vapour Cloud Explosion: Feyzin Incident

In the case of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) tank explosion(s), risk impact assessment on the storage facilities must be carried out. Since every LPG tank has its operating condition, it is essential to decide what the best operating conditions are for each tank. This effort is made to avert an accident from happening, as fires and explosions can be devastating in terms of lives lost and destruction to buildings and the environment. Boil-off and/or ignition of flammable gas can cause the pressure in the tank to increase. Therefore, a method called Planas-Cuchi is applied to determine the Peak Side-On Overpressure, Po, of the LPG tank during the occurrence of explosion. Thermodynamic properties of saturated propane, C3H8, has been chosen as a reference and basis of calculation to determine the parameters involved, such as Explosion Energy, E, Equivalent Mass of TNT, WTNT, and Scaled Overpressure, PS. A cylindrical LPG tank in Feyzin Refinery, France is selected as a point of study in this research. At the end of this study, the most suitable operating pressure of the LPG tank will be determined, and the results are compared and validated using the TNT Equivalent (BREEZE software), Baker-Strehlow model and ARIA investigation report

Using game engine for 3D terrain visualisation of GIS data: A review

This paper reviews on the 3D terrain visualisation of GIS data using game engines that are available in the market as well as open source. 3D terrain visualisation is a technique used to visualise terrain information from GIS data such as a digital elevation model (DEM), triangular irregular network (TIN) and contour. Much research has been conducted to transform the 2D view of map to 3D. There are several terrain visualisation softwares that are available for free, which include Cesium, Hftool and Landserf.This review paper will help interested users to better understand the current state of art in 3D terrain visualisation of GIS data using game engines

Optimization of food waste utilization in the RDF recovery energy facility

It is well known that there is a significant increased in the quantity of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generated every year. Therefore, the management of MSW must be handled carefully by experts. Malaysia as one of the developing country with population nearly 30 millions also facing problems related to MSW management and this issue is quite critical. Even though various programmes were established and few model technologies were introduced by the government to manage MSW effectively, but the impact remain unsatisfaction. For example, the energy facility recovery project which use MSW gathered around Kajang as an alternative fuel still not successful to provide energy according to the design capacity of that particular facility. This failure was observed due to the impact composition of MSW collected which consists huge amount of food waste (57%), 16% plastic, 15% diaper, 9% mixed papers and the remaining 3% textile. The existing process technology at Refused Derived Fuel (RDF) facility is no designed to create a new economic benefit from abundant incoming food waste to the facility. Therefore in this paper, the analysis and suggestion of technology on existing RDF recovery energy facility will be discussed especially on how to overcome the abundant composition of food waste

Systematic Review of Stress and Coping Strategies during Pandemic COVID-19 Among Students in Higher Learning Institutions

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that strike Malaysia and the rest of the world has given a huge variety of implications especially in the aspect of mental health. Students are no exception in dealing with it. It requires every student to adapt to the new norms that exist in teaching and learning (T&L) system. Thus, this study aims to examine the coping strategies and stress management that can be applied by students in dealing with stress during the pandemic. To achieve this goal a systematic search was conducted, and a simple thematic analysis approach was used to identify the coping strategies among students at higher learning institutions as discussed by previous researchers on similar topics from three search engines on (1) Scopus, (2) Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), and (3) Science Direct from 2015 to 2021 to determine the latest evidence and observations. A literature review of 10 relevant studies was rigorously analysed to get understanding of coping strategies and stress management amongst students at higher learning institutions. The findings show that there are four critical factors in stress management including (1) time management, (2) internet access issues, (2) academic workload and (4) adaptation to new norms. In addition, there are three types of coping strategies that students can do in coping with stress. Research pertaining to these issues are still lacking. This study is seen to be a new platform and guidelines especially for educational institutions to ensure that every student is equipped with stress management skills that can lead to personal well -being