Fundamental Study on Inhitibiting Exothermic Reactions Under Adverse Conditions

放热反应用于化工、石化和制药工业。控制这些反应很重要，因为失去控制可能会导致热失控，这可能会导致环境破坏、受伤，有时甚至是死亡的事故。处理失控反应的一种方法是抑制，即在失控反应的最早阶段向反应器或储存容器中注入少量的缓蚀剂。本项目将重点研究在不利条件下的反应速度、温度和压力，如失去冷却、失去搅拌和异常动力学。这些研究将使用(1)具有三个混合区的新的模拟模型来描述完全混合和不完全混合的失控反应，(2)计算流体力学模型来匹配湍流和微混合条件下的搅拌效果，以及(3)实验设计(DOE)方法来有效地确定抑制失控的方法。这些结果最终也将被用来强调未来反应更快、反应堆更小时的问题和局限性。影响：这个项目创造的知识最终可能会改善化学工业的安全表现和形象。此外，PIS计划开发化学过程安全教育材料，用于本科生的化学工程课程，这是一种将安全相关问题引入课程的机制。

Exothermic reactions are used in the chemical, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical industries. Control of these reactions is important because the loss of control can lead to thermal runaways, which can cause accidents with environmental damage, injuries, and sometimes fatalities. A way for dealing with runaway reactions is inhibition which involves injecting small quantities of an inhibitor into a reactor or storage vessel at the earliest stage of a runaway.This project will focus on the study of reaction rates, temperatures, and pressures under adverse conditions, such as loss of cooling, loss of agitation, and unusual kinetics. The studies will use (1) a new simulation model with three mixing zones to characterize runaway reactions with perfect mixing versus imperfect mixing, (2) computational fluid dynamics models to copmater the effects of agitation under turbulent and micromixing conditions, and (3) design of experiment (DOE) methods to effectively identify methods to inhibit runaways. The results will ultimately also be used to highlight future problems and limitations when reactions are faster and reactors are smaller.Impact:Knowledge created by this project could ultimately improve the chemical industry's safety performance and image. In addition, the PIs plan to develop chemical process safety educational material for use in undergraduate chemical engineering courses, a mechanism for introducing safety related issues into the curriculum.