Screening Tool for Runaway Reaction Characterization. Optimizing Efforts for Emergency Relief Systems Design

Not all reactive systems present the same thermal risk level, and accordingly, not all of them require the same level of detail for Emergency Relief System design. The present paper illustrates and easy-to-use and effective screening tool for characterizing any reactive system based on information extracted from basic calorimetric tests. The proposed tool is able to characterize two key parameters of both desired and potential secondary reactions in case of a runaway: (1) Adiabatic Temperature Rise; and (2) Time to Maximum Rate under adiabatic conditions. The screening tool is able to provide four key temperature levels which contain the thermodynamic and kinetics information of the runaway reaction. Based on the criticality class estimated, it is reliable to technically justify the optimum efforts required for ERS design. The methodology is an added value tool for the decision-making process able to save time and money when questioning if complex, time-consuming and laborious two-phase dynamics simulations and kinetic model developments are required or not.