Professor David Edwards

PhD

  • Visiting Professor of Safety and Loss Prevention
Publications
headshot of David

Background:

David graduated with a 1st class honours degree in chemical engineering from Imperial College, London in 1978.  In 1982 he was awarded a PhD, also in chemical engineering at Imperial College, for his research in computer aided design.

From 1981 he worked in London and New York on techno-economic evaluation of petrochemical processes for Chem Systems, who were an international firm of chemical industry consultants and process developers.  Afterwards, he developed oil refinery models and analysed oil pricing.  Between 1990 and 2002 he researched health, safety and environmental (HSE) matters, in particular inherent safety, in the Department of Chemical Engineering at º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ, while leading the Plant Engineering research group.  He was promoted to senior lecturer for teaching excellence.  He served on all the major University committees and was elected President of º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ Association of University Teachers.  From 2002 until 2006 he was a self-employed safety consultant and Visiting Fellow at º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ and he also taught at Nottingham University and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST).  He has delivered many commercial training courses.

David has worked for the last 14 years at KBR Energy Solutions Consulting (formerly Granherne) and is their Risk, Safety and Health Manager.  He has been Lead Safety and Lead Working Environment Engineer on many projects, both onshore in the Russian Federation, where he helped to introduce hazard and operability (HAZOP) studies, and offshore around the world.  He provides the intellectual leadership for the risk-based approach to HSE in conceptual design, starting with consideration of inherent safety and sustainability and has developed practical methods.

From June 2015 to March 2019, David was Lead Working Environment Engineer for the Kvaerner-KBR joint venture, which designed and built the Johan Sverdrup Utilities and Living Quarters Platform for Equinor (formerly Statoil), with partner organisations in Indonesia, Norway, Sweden and Poland.

David is currently working on various offshore oil, gas, including Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), and carbon dioxide storage projects.

Key awards:

IChemE Hutchison Medal for: Inherently Safer Design – Present and Future, J.P. Gupta, D.W. Edwards, Trans Instn Chem. Engrs, 80, B, 115-125, (2002).

IChemE Franklin Medal for outstanding service in the fields of occupational health, safety, loss prevention and care for the environment.

Professional activities and qualifications:

  • IChemE Safety Forum
  • Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (FIChemE)
  • Chartered Engineer (CEng)
  • Chartered Scientist (CSci)
  • Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance, Quality Management System Lead Auditor
  • Certified TÜV Functional Safety Engineer (ID: 4729/12)
  • Member of the Institution for Occupational Safety and Health
  • National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) National General Certificate
  • Trained First Aider

Outline of main research interests:

  • Computer aided design
  • Information management
  • Cost estimation
  • Inherent safety
  • Sustainability
  • Human factors and working environment in design

Selected publications:

  • Inherent Safety: It's Common Sense, Now for Common Practice!, David Edwards, John Foster, Daniel Linwood, Mark McBride-Wright & Peter Russell, Hazards 25, Edinburgh, May 13-15, 2015, IChemE, Rugby (2015).
  • Guest perspectives_Edwards and Gupta, Bhopal – how long does a disaster last?, David Edwards, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 34, Pages 232–234 (March 2015)
  • Export inherent safety – not risk, David W. Edwards, The Loss Prevention Bulletin, 240, December 2014, pp 21-24.
  • Process safety pioneer passes away, Edwards D.W., Hydrocarbon Processing, 01.01.2014 (on line).
  • Trevor Kletz: 1922-2013, David Edwards, The Chemical Engineer, pp 60-61, December 2013/January 2014.
  • Simple graphical method for inherent occupational health assessment, Mimi H.Hassim, Marku Hurme, David W Edwards, Nik N.N.A. Aziz, Fariha L.M. Rahim, PSEP, 91, 438-451, (2013).
  • A new safety risk index for use in petrochemical planning, G.K. Al-Sharrah, D. Edwards and G. Hankinson, Trans Instn Chem. Engrs, 85 (6 B), pp. 533-540, (2007).
  • Development of a methodology for assessing inherent occupational health hazards, M. H. Hassim and D. W. Edwards, Trans Instn Chem. Engrs, 84, B5, 378-390, (September, 2006).
  • Chemical process route selection based upon the potential toxic impact on the aquatic, terrestrial and atmospheric environments, M.Y. Gunasekera and D.W. Edwards, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 19, 1, 60-69, (January 2006)
  • Assessing the inherent atmospheric environmental friendliness of chemical process routes: an unsteady state distribution approach for a catastrophic release, M.Y. Gunasekera and D.W. Edwards, Computers and Chemical Engineering, 30, 744-757, (2006).
  • Are we too risk-averse for inherent safety?  An examination of current status and barriers to adoption, D.W. Edwards, Trans Instn Chem. Engrs, 83, B2, 90-100, (March, 2005).
  • Optimization of the process for recovering caprolactam from wastewater in a pulsed-sieve-plate column using green design methodologies, Chao-Hong He, Yun-He Gao, Shuang-Hua Yang, David W. Edwards, Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 17(3): 195-204, (2004).
  • Chemical reaction route selection based on green chemical engineering, He, CH; Ge, TF; Yang, SH; Edwards, DW, Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 12 (5): 662-667, (2004).
  • A simple graphical method for measuring inherent safety, J. P. Gupta and David. W. Edwards, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 104, 1-3, 15-30, 14 November (2003).
  • Designing Internet-based Control Systems for Process Plants, S.H. Yang, X. Chen, D.W. Edwards, J.L. Alty, The 4th Asian Control Conference, Singapore, September 25-27 2002.
  • Inherently Safer Design – Present and Future, J.P. Gupta, D.W.Edwards, Trans Instn Chem. Engrs, 80, B, 115-125, (2002).
  • AI planning: solutions for real world problems, R.S. Aylett, G.J.Petley, P.W.H.Chung, B.Chen, D.W.Edwards, Knowledge-Based Systems, 13, 61-69, (2000)
  • ASTutE: Computer-Aided Teaching of Materials Balancing, David W. Edwards, Fiona M. Lamb, Vian S. Ahmed, Steve J. Rothberg, Chemical Engineering Education, 34, 3 (Summer, 2000).
  • Technical Integrity – an engineer’s view, Edward Bale, David W. Edwards, Engineering Management Journal, 10(2), 88-94, 2000
  • Hazard Identification in Discrete/Continuous Computer-Controlled Plants, P.W.H. Chung, S. Yang, D.W. Edwards, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, 38(11), 4359-4371, (1999)
  • Municipal waste life cycle assessment Part 2, transport analysis and glass case study, D.W. Edwards and J.Schelling, Trans Instn Chem. Engrs B, 77, 259-274 (September, 1999).
  • Modelling Issues for Control Structure Selection in a Chemical Process, Yi Cao, Diane Rossiter, David W. Edwards, Jens Knechtel, David Owens, Computers chem. Engng, 22, Suppl., S411-S418, (1998).  (and ESCAPE8, 24-27 May 1998, Brugge, Belgium)
  • Chemical Process Route Selection Based on Assessment of Inherent Environmental Hazard, S.R. Cave and D. W. Edwards, Computers Chem. Engng, 21, Suppl., S965-S970, (1997).  (and PSE '97-ESCAPE7, 25-29 May 1997, Trondheim, Norway).
  • Further Developments in Chemical Plant Cost Estimation Using Fuzzy Matching, G.J. Petley, D.W. Edwards, Computers chem. Engng, 19 Suppl., S675-S680, (1995).  (ESCAPE5, 11-14 June 1995)
  • The POINTER Federal Distributed Data Management System for Integrating Process Engineering, B.P. Das, C.E. Journet, D.W. Edwards and I.A. Newman, Computers chem. Engng, 19 Suppl., S321-S326, (1995).   (and ESCAPE5, 11-14 June 1995)
  • Inherent safety and computer aided process design, A.G. Rushton, D.W. Edwards and D. Lawrence, Trans Instn Chem. Engrs B, 72, 83-87 (May, 1994).
  • Assessing student presentations, David W. Edwards, Chemical Engineering Education, 28, 1, 70-73 (1994).
  • Assessing the inherent safety of chemical process routes: is there a relation between plant costs and inherent safety?, D.W. Edwards and D. Lawrence, Trans Instn Chem. Engrs B, 71, 252-258 (November, 1993).
  • Integrated Process Feasibility Assessment, David W. Edwards, The 1993 IChemE Research Event, pp. 729-731, Birmingham, 6-7 January (1993).
  • Data-Based Cost Estimation for Chemical Process Plants, G.J. Petley and D.W. Edwards, The 1993 IChemE Research Event, pp. 714-716, Birmingham, 6-7 January (1993).
  • Oil Refinery Modelling for Managers, David Edwards, CADCAM '87, 24-26 March, pp. 437-439, (1987).

Invited and keynote lectures:

International Conference on the 20th Anniversary of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, December 1 to 3, 2004, ‘Export Inherent Safety NOT Risk’

Hazards XVII, UMIST, Manchester, 25-27th March 2000, ‘Chemical Engineering – an Inherent SHE Imperative’

Invited lectures at: Padua and Bologna Universities in Italy, Zheijiang University in the Peoples Republic of China and Kuwait University.