Thermal Safety of Chemical Processes: Risk Assessment and Process Design

Based on the author's many years of experience in practicing safety assessment in industry and teaching students or professionals in this area, the topic of this book is seldom found on university curricula and many professionals do not have the knowledge required to interpret thermal data in terms of risks. For this reason, Francis Stoessel adopts a unique systematic how-to-do approach: Each chapter begins with a case history illustrating the topic and presenting the lessons learned from the incident. In so doing, he analyzes a goldmine of numerous examples stemming from industrial practice, additionally providing a series of problems or case studies at the end of each chapter. Divided into three distinct sections, part one looks at the general aspects of thermal process safety, while Part 2 deals with mastering exothermal reactions. The final section discusses the avoidance of secondary reactions, including heat accumulation and thermal confinement.

Table of Contents:
PART I: GENERAL ASPECTS OF THERMAL PROCESS SAFETY INTRODUCTION Case History Chemical Industry and Safety Risk Analysis Safety Data Systematic Search for Hazards Key Factors for a Successful Risk Analysis FUNDAMENTALS OF THERMAL PROCESS SAFETY Case History: Storage during Week-End Energy Potential Effect of Temperature on Reaction Rate Heat Balance Runaway Reactions Problems ASSESSMENT OF THERMAL RISKS Case history: Sulfonation Thermal Risks Systematic Assessment Procedure Assessment Procedures Exercises EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES Case History: Diazotization Calorimetric Measurement Principles Choice of Instruments Used in Safety Laboratories Problems PART II: MASTERING EXOTHERMAL REACTIONS GENERAL ASPECTS OF REACTOR SAFETY Case history: Process Deviation Dynamic Stability of Reactors Example BATCH REACTORS Case History "Nitroaniline" Principles of Batch Reaction Strategies of Temperature Control Isothermal Reactions Adiabatic Reaction Polytropic Reaction Isoperibolic Reaction Temperature Controlled Reaction Key Factors for the Safe Design of Batch Reactors Exercises SEMI-BATCH REACTORS Case history Principles of Semi-Batch Reaction Reactant Accumulation in Semi-Batch Reactors Design of Safe Semi-Batch Reactors Isothermal Reaction Isoperibolic, Constant Cooling Medium Temperature Non Isothermal Reaction Strategies of Feed Control Choice of Temperature and Feed Rate Feed Control by Accumulation Exercises CONTINUOUS REACTORS Case History Continuous Stirred Tank Reactors Tubular Reactors Other continuous reactor types TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF REACTOR SAFETY Case history: "Process transfer" Temperature control of industrial reactors Heat exchange across the wall Evaporative cooling Dynamics of the temperature control system and process design Exercises RISK REDUCING MEASURES Case History Strategies of choice Eliminating measures Technical preventing Measures Emergency measures Design of technical measures Exercises PART III: AVOIDING SECONDARY REACTIONS THERMAL STABILITY Case History: Storage During Repair Thermal Stability and Secondary Decomposition Reactions Consequences of Secondary Decomposition Reactions Triggering Condition Experimental Characterization of Decomposition Reactions Exercises AUTOCATALYTIC REACTIONS Case History: DMSO Recovery Introduction Characterization of autocatalytic reactions Practical Safety Aspects for autocatalytic reactions Exercises HEAT CONFINEMENT Case History Heat accumulation situations Heat balance Heat balance with reactive material Assessing heat accumulation conditions Exercises SYMBOLS

About the Author :
Professor Francis Stoessel is Head of Chemical Process Safety Consulting in the Swiss Institute for the Promotion of Safety & Security. After graduating in Chemical Engineering from the Universite de Haute Alsace, he spent most of his career working for Ciba-Geigy in their Chemical Engineering Department. He was Head of the Thermal Safety Department at Ciba, later of Process Safety Consulting at Novartis. He then took up a professorship at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne. Prof. Stoessel has received awards from the Swiss Expert Commission for Safety in the Chemical Industry and the Swiss Society for Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry.

Review :
This book should not be missing from the library collections of each chemical engineer or student preparing for this profession. (Environmental Engineering and Management Journal, May / June 2008)