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Reactive Chemistry and Thermal Hazard Workshop

Reading calorimetry data and knowing what your process will do at plant scale

Runaway reactions remain among the most destructive process incidents and the most predictable from testing. This workshop covers the four characteristic temperatures, criticality classification, calorimetry interpretation including the thermal inertia correction, and what the data means for relief sizing and basis of safety.

This course sits alongside our Reactive Chemistry and Thermal Hazard consulting work, so what is taught is what we do.

Who should attend

Process development chemists and chemical engineers
Plant engineers operating batch and semi batch reactors
Process safety engineers assessing reactive hazards
Engineers specifying relief for reacting systems

Course content

Every module is taught with worked examples and exercises drawn from real plant, and adapted to your own process where the course runs in house.

1

Reaction hazard fundamentals

  • Heat of reaction, adiabatic temperature rise and heat removal capacity
  • Time to maximum rate under adiabatic conditions
  • Desired reaction against secondary decomposition
  • Accumulation in semi batch operation and why dosing control matters
2

The four characteristic temperatures

  • Process temperature, maximum temperature of the synthesis reaction, maximum temperature for technical reasons and the temperature at which time to maximum rate is 24 hours
  • Criticality classes 1 to 5 and what each demands of the design
  • Using the classification to select a basis of safety
3

Calorimetry

  • Screening by differential scanning calorimetry
  • Reaction calorimetry for heat release rate and accumulation
  • Adiabatic calorimetry for runaway characterisation
  • Thermal inertia and correcting a measured result toward plant behaviour
  • Specifying a test programme that answers the question you have
4

From data to design

  • Basis of safety selection from temperature control through to relief and containment
  • Vent sizing for vapour, gassy and hybrid systems
  • Emergency cooling, quenching and reaction inhibition
  • Incidents including T2 Laboratories and what the data would have shown

What you receive

  • A calorimetry test specification template
  • A criticality classification worksheet
  • Worked adiabatic correction and vent sizing examples
  • Assessment result and attendance record

What changes afterwards

  • Reactive hazards get characterised before scale up rather than after an incident
  • Calorimetry is commissioned to answer a specific design question
  • Measured data is corrected toward plant scale rather than used raw
  • Basis of safety is chosen deliberately and documented

Standards and references

We teach Reactive Chemistry and Thermal Hazard Workshop against CCPS Guidelines for Chemical Reactivity Evaluation and Application to Process Design and the codes listed with it, at the edition current when you run it.

CCPS Guidelines for Chemical Reactivity Evaluation and Application to Process DesignDIERS methodology for reactive system reliefUK HSE guidance on chemical reaction hazardsASTM E537 and related thermal stability test methods

Run Reactive Chemistry and Thermal Hazard Workshop for your team

We will come back with dates, the pre-reading it needs and a cost per head. Tell us who is attending, what they already do day to day and whether you want it at your site or delivered online.

Ask about dates and cost