Hazard Analysis Using Response Surface Technology on 2-Butanol Oxidation to 2-Butanone Using RC1 Calorimatry
Abstract
Process scale-up for highly exothermic reactions often comes with the risk of runaway reactions. In order to prevent thermal runaway reactions and its associated incidents, requirements on cooling equipment and operating regions on chemical process should be determined. To do so, a specific chemical reaction system was investigated. The purpose of research is to investigate in a specific exothermic reaction and determine the heat release amount based on the chosen parameters. Response surface methodology is utilized to determine the operating regions of synthesis reaction of 2-butanol to 2-butanone based minimize the heat release. Three Parameters used for experiments are operating temperature, 2-butanol concentration, and catalyst amount. The result of response surface methodology indicates that the optimum operating ranges for this synthesis reaction were at relatively low and high 2-butanol concentrations, as well as moderate temperatures and catalyst amounts. Additionally, 2-butanol concentration played a more significant role in heat release compared to operating temperature and catalyst amount. 2-butanol concentration of 0.5 mol/L combined with either a titanium silicalite-1 of approximately 8 g (2.4 wt %) or 15 g (4.8 wt %) would result higher amount of total heat release. Furthermore, qualitative risk matrix is constructed by calculating the total heat released as “severity” and Process and Hazard Control Index (PHCI) as “likelihood”. The purpose of qualitative risk matrix is to rank the risks of hazards associated with the oxidation reaction of 2-butanone. Hazard or event with high risk level would be marked as red, indicating that additional layers of protection such as cooling utilities should be installed if performing under such conditions. Region highlighted in yellow indicates that hazards for operation are controllable and less protections are required. Region highlighted in green indicate that hazards for operation are low and acceptable. This experiment provides useful data for determining the parameters that will generate sufficient low heat release amount and which can be used for cooling equipment designs in industry that perform scale-up synthesis reactions.
Citation
Mao, Yiwei (2022). Hazard Analysis Using Response Surface Technology on 2-Butanol Oxidation to 2-Butanone Using RC1 Calorimatry. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /198036.