SCI和EI收录∣中国化工学会会刊

Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering ›› 2018, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (6): 1252-1263.DOI: 10.1016/j.cjche.2018.03.017

• Reviews • 上一篇    下一篇

Inherently safer reactors and procedures to prevent reaction runaway

Yi Fei1,2, Bing Sun1, Fan Zhang1, Wei Xu1, Ning Shi1, Jie Jiang1   

  1. 1 Research Institute of Safety Engineering, SINOPEC, State Key Laboratory of Safety and Control for Chemicals, Qingdao 266071, China;
    2 School of Chemical Engineering, China University of Petroleum(East China), Qingdao 266000, China
  • 收稿日期:2017-12-07 修回日期:2018-03-13 出版日期:2018-06-28 发布日期:2018-08-03
  • 通讯作者: Wei Xu,E-mail address:xuw.qday@sinopec.com
  • 基金资助:

    Supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFB0301701).

Inherently safer reactors and procedures to prevent reaction runaway

Yi Fei1,2, Bing Sun1, Fan Zhang1, Wei Xu1, Ning Shi1, Jie Jiang1   

  1. 1 Research Institute of Safety Engineering, SINOPEC, State Key Laboratory of Safety and Control for Chemicals, Qingdao 266071, China;
    2 School of Chemical Engineering, China University of Petroleum(East China), Qingdao 266000, China
  • Received:2017-12-07 Revised:2018-03-13 Online:2018-06-28 Published:2018-08-03
  • Contact: Wei Xu,E-mail address:xuw.qday@sinopec.com
  • Supported by:

    Supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFB0301701).

摘要: Reaction runaway has longtime been an issue in chemical industry as it often leads to severe accidents if not controlled and inhibited properly. Herein we have reviewed several key considerations and procedures to prevent such phenomena, including inherently safer reactor design, thermal risk assessment and early warning detection of runaway, and pointed out that the basic principle underlying is necessary heat management and construction of resilient processes. For inherently safer reactor design, important factors such as heat removal, heat capacitance, flow behaviors and explosive behaviors have been investigated. The survey shows that heat exchanger (HEX) reactor and microreactor outperform traditional reactors. Meanwhile, we have looked into the effect of thermal risk ranking and safety operation region determining for thermal risk assessment, and the influence of runaway criteria and construction methods for early detection of reaction runaway as well. It shows that thermal risk assessment plays a key role on process design, and early warning detection system (EWDS) is preferable on prevention of reaction runaway. In the end, perspectives regarding inherently safer designs with the measures discussed above have been provided.

关键词: Reaction runaway, Safety, Chemical reactor, Heat transfer, Thermal risk assessment, Early warning detection

Abstract: Reaction runaway has longtime been an issue in chemical industry as it often leads to severe accidents if not controlled and inhibited properly. Herein we have reviewed several key considerations and procedures to prevent such phenomena, including inherently safer reactor design, thermal risk assessment and early warning detection of runaway, and pointed out that the basic principle underlying is necessary heat management and construction of resilient processes. For inherently safer reactor design, important factors such as heat removal, heat capacitance, flow behaviors and explosive behaviors have been investigated. The survey shows that heat exchanger (HEX) reactor and microreactor outperform traditional reactors. Meanwhile, we have looked into the effect of thermal risk ranking and safety operation region determining for thermal risk assessment, and the influence of runaway criteria and construction methods for early detection of reaction runaway as well. It shows that thermal risk assessment plays a key role on process design, and early warning detection system (EWDS) is preferable on prevention of reaction runaway. In the end, perspectives regarding inherently safer designs with the measures discussed above have been provided.

Key words: Reaction runaway, Safety, Chemical reactor, Heat transfer, Thermal risk assessment, Early warning detection