Design of a Biorefinery-Based Acetaminophen Production Plant in Malaysia; The Danger of Dust: An Assessment of Moral Responsibility for the Explosion at the Port Wentworth Imperial Sugar Refinery 110 views

My technical capstone project and my STS research paper are connected through the concept of designing a chemical plant and the potential consequences of not maintaining a large facility. My technical work focuses on the design of a facility to synthesize acetaminophen from empty fruit bunches (EFB), a current waste product in palm oil refining. My STS research paper assesses the moral responsibility of plant management for the Imperial Sugar dust explosion in 2008 in Port Wentworth, GA. My technical work focuses on process design and efficiency, while my STS work assesses what happens when an existing facility does not maintain proper maintenance protocols and operating practices. Both projects are centered around safe and responsible engineering practices, when designing a facility and continuing when the facility is in operation. My technical work uses key chemical engineering design principles to design a facility to convert EFB, a current waste product in palm oil refining, into acetaminophen which is currently produced from petrochemical feedstocks. The overall goal is to repurpose a waste product into a value-added product using sustainable practices. The process has four major sections: EFB processing, the Hoffman rearrangement reaction, acetylation, and crystallization. The resulting acetaminophen is at a 97% purity level and is tableted for consumer consumption. In addition to design work, this work also considered regulatory standards from the FDA for pharmaceutical products and safety concerns with various aspects of the process. My STS research also is about a chemical process facility, but it analyzes the operating practices of a built facility. This is done by analyzing the explosion of the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, GA. My research uses Ibo van de Poel and Lambèr Royakkers’ framework for moral responsibility of engineers to assess the extent of responsibility plant management bears for the incident (van de Poel & Royakkers, 2011). I argue that plant management bears moral responsibility under the foreseeability and casual contribution criteria. The goal of this paper is to analyze what can happen because of poor operating practices at a chemical process plant to show the importance of proper maintenance practices for a large facility with hazardous materials. Working on both projects allowed for a wholistic view of designing a chemical plant and allowed me to approach engineering from a broader lens. My technical work focuses mainly on design specifications. The safety analysis done complements our design work to ensure the facility being designed has safe operating practices to minimize the risk of a catastrophe. My STS research shows what can happen if safety protocols and maintenance procedures are inadequate or ignored. These two projects in tandem show the importance of considering safety and ethical practices when designing a plant to minimize the risk of a preventable, catastrophic incident. As a result of these two projects, I have comprehensive experience in process design with a wholistic view that emphasizes the safety and ethical considerations of engineering work.

BS (Bachelor of Science)

Acetaminophen; Empty Fruit Bunch; Imperial Sugar

School of Engineering and Applied Science Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering Technical Advisor: Eric Anderson STS Advisor: Benjamin Laugelli Technical Team Members: Madeline Jennings, Elizabeth Kelly, Masa Murry, Sarthak Pathak

All rights reserved by the author (no additional license for public reuse)

2026-05-07