SWATI UMBRAJKAR, PH.D., CSP

PROCESS SAFETY SPECIALIST

Dr. Umbrajkar has over 17 years of research and industry experience, including 12+ years of experience dedicated to managing all aspects of Process Safety. She is also a certified safety professional. Dr. Umbrajkar consults with clients on a variety of process safety issues including but not limited to dust explosivity hazards, hazardous electrical area classification, chemical reactivity hazard assessment and OSHA PSM audits.  Solid knowledge of combustible dust fire & explosion prevention risk mitigation systems/compliance, NFPA consensus standards, OSHA & EPA regulations.  As a process safety specialist, she is proficient in the interpretation of data for a wide variety of process safety scenarios. She has led Process Hazard Studies, and Chemical Reaction Safety Assessments for facilities around the globe. She has also authored several articles in the fields of, ‘Chemical Process Safety’.

SPECIALIST AREAS OF EXPERTISE

• Dust Hazard Analysis
• Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) – What If, Checklist and HAZOP
• Chemical Process Safety Evaluation
• PSM assessments and regulatory compliance audits
• Adiabatic Calorimetry Testing Techniques
• Hazardous Electrical Area Classification
• Identification and Classification of Highly Energetic Materials

ACADEMIC CREDENTIALS & PROFESSIONAL HONORS

2007          Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, New Jersey

2002          M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Wayne State of University, Detroit, Michigan

1999          Post Graduate Diploma in Materials Management, Symbiosis Institute of Management, India

1997          B. Eng., Production Engineering, Walchand Institute of Technology, India

Certified Safety Professional (CSP) – since 2015

American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) – since 2010

Certification:

CCPS’ HAZOP Studies and Other PHA Techniques for Process Safety and Risk Management – October 2018

CCPS’ Advanced Concepts for Process Hazard Analysis – October 2018

PRIOR PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Process Safety Specialist, DEKRA, Princeton, 2013 – Present

DEKRA Process Safety

• Conducted hazardous area classification at several sites in a ‘seeds’ handling facility across the United States.
• Conducted hazardous area classification at several sites of a fertilizer manufacturing company across the United States and Canada.
• PSM Program development for a multinational client – in the food industry.

o Conducted PSM gap assessment for six sites within United States and Mexico. o Developed training on various PSM elements to be implemented at various sites across the globe.

• Ongoing project: Serve as a subject matter expert for a multi-site enhancement for the handling of combustible dust over two years. Work involves communication with teams at three sites, review of existing systems, hazard assessments, creation of interim controls, updating action registers and RACI chart, consultation on contractors to help enhance combustible dust handling capabilities. Review of contractor’ bids on enhancements. Hazardous Area Classification, review of inventory of electrical equipment as well as incident investigation. Fireball discharge path calculations were performed to include as interim controls.

Manager, Chemical Process Evaluation Group, 

DEKRA Process Safety, Princeton, NJ, 2009 – 2018

• Laboratory Manager: responsible for the P & L of the chemical process evaluation group resulting in continued growth in the performance of the group. Performed annual appraisals and created career goals and growth path for team members.
• Training course instructor: presented several 1-3 days training sessions as well as webinars in the areas of ‘Runaway Reaction Hazards’, ‘Hazardous Area Classification’, ‘Fire and Explosion Hazards’ and ‘Dust Explosion Hazards’.

○    Provided 8 one-day trainings per year on Runaway reaction hazards and other topics related to Process Safety offered by Chilworth and at Client sites.

○    Provided 3 day training sessions (2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017) in collaboration with ‘Scientific Update’ on ‘The design, development and scale up of safe chemical processes and operations’. Total of ~ 80 training sessions were conducted.

Test Engineer, DEKRA Process Safety, Plainsboro, NJ, 2007 – 2009  DEKRA Process Safety, Princeton

• Performed small scale preliminary/screening and large scale tests, for ex. Differential scanning calorimetry, adiabatic dewar calorimetry (ARC and ADC) and reaction calorimetry (RC-1). Performed standard (ASTM, UNDOT, IEEE standards) tests.
• Provided interpretation of data for a wide variety of process safety scenarios including dust explosion, flammability and electrostatic hazards.
• Provided consultation to clients on a variety of process safety issues including but not limited to chemical reactivity hazards which allow for the safe scale-up of batch and semi-batch processes. Discussed critical issues with clients, associated with the safe storage of bulk materials.

Research Assistant, New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJ, 2003 – 2007 

EXCELLENCE AWARDS:

• NASA for her services in NASA’s SHARP student apprenticeship research program in August 2005
• Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) students at the New Jersey Center for Engineered Particulates (NJCEP) in August 2006
• Awarded the Best Graduate Student Research Overall on November 6, 2006.
• Recipient of the “best presenter” award at the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) Young Professionals in Science and Engineering Conference (Northeast Section) in November 2006
• Best Student Award – Final Year Engineering – 1997

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

• Member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and co-chair at 2014 Spring Meeting 10th Global Congress on Process Safety New Orleans, LA
• Member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and co-Chair at the 2015 Spring Meeting 11th Global Congress on Process Safety, Austin, TX

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS

Umbrajkar S., Chemical Reaction Hazards, Chilworth Technology’s 5-Day Fire, Explosion & Thermal Hazards Training Courses, 2009-2019

Umbrajkar S. and Kashani A., Poster Session, Evaluating Properties of New Energetic Hazardous Materials, IPS, Colorado Springs, CO, July 13-18, 2014

1. Umbrajkar and S. Rowe, Getting Valid Information from Process Safety Data at American

Institute of Chemical Engineers, 2nd China International Chemical PSM Symposium & the 3rd CCPS China Conference on Process Safety, Qingdao, September 23-24 2015

1. Umbrajkar and S. Rowe, Understanding the Effect of Fill-ratio on Thermokinetic Data at

American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 2015 Spring Meeting 11th Global Congress on Process Safety Austin, TX April 27-29, 2015

1. Umbrajkar and S. Rowe, Assessing Thermal Stability – The Challenge of Powders at

American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 2014 Spring Meeting 10th Global Congress on Process Safety New Orleans, LA March 30 -April 2, 2014

Umbrajkar S., Webinar, Evaluating Reactivity Hazards of Waste Materials, DEKRA Process Safety on June 6, 2013

Umbrajkar S., Schoenitz M. and Dreizin E.L., Heterogeneous Processes Leading to Metal Ignition in Reactive Nanocomposite Materials, 45th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno, NV, January 2007

Umbrajkar S., Schoenitz M. and Dreizin E.L., Kinetics Analysis of Thermite Reactions in nanocomposites prepared by arrested reactive milling, YPSE AIAA-Baltimore section, November 2006

Sheshadri S., Umbrajkar S., Schoenitz M., Hoffmann V. and Dreizin E.L., Combustion of

Off-stoichiometric Al-MoO3 Nanocomposite Powders in Dry Air, AIChE Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November 2006

Schoenitz M., Umbrajkar S. and Dreizin E.L., Kinetics Analysis of Thermite Reactions in Al-

MoO3, 42nd AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, Sacramento, CA, July 2006

Umbrajkar S., Schoenitz M. and Dreizin E.L., Control of structural refinement of the Al-MoO3  nanocomposites produced by Arrested Reactive Milling, Proc. Ann. Meeting of Materials Research Society, Vol. 0896- H02-04, Boston, MA, November-December 2005