Applying mathematical simulation for design of inherently safe chemical processes: I. Providing inherent safety

Abstract

The chemical industry is one of the most important and agilely developing sectors of the economy. At the same time, chemical plants are extremely hazardous. Therefore, the safety of chemical plants is of paramount importance. One of the promising methods for the solution of this problem is developing the inherently safe processes, i.e., processes of less prone to hazardous instability or uncontrolled state (thermal explosion). A technique for the optimization of process for selected equipment and in-process materials is outlined that enables finding the operational mode, which guarantees the safety of the process under normal conditions of its proceeding and provides the maximum achievable safety in the case of an accident. The approach is considered on the example of an emergency scenario of disfunction in maintaining the heat regime (cooling failure). The basic ideas of applying the method of nonlinear optimization are considered for the developing the inherent safety of the process. Formulation of the problem, selection of criteria for the optimization, methods for setting the control variables are reported. The effectiveness of this approach is illustrated by several examples.