Abstract
This chapter reviews the importance of safety measures in the chemical reaction engineering processes at the industrial scale. In the chemical process industries (CPI), chemical manufacture in the pharmaceutical, and specialty chemical industries, involves the processing of reactive chemicals, toxic or flammable liquids, vapors, gases, and powders. Fires, explosions, and incidents involving hazardous chemical reactions still occur after the improvement in safety records of these industries. The control of chemical reactions (e.g., esterification, sulfonation, nitration, alkylation, polymerization, oxidation, reduction, halogenation) and the associated hazards form an essential aspect of the chemical manufacture in the CPI. The principal causes of the exothermic runaway incidents include: inadequate temperature control, inadequate agitation, inadequate maintenance, raw material quality, no study of the reaction chemistry and thermochemistry, human factors. Some of the steps to ensure safe operation are: reducing the feed rate of the reactant, providing adequate emergency venting for the reactor, injecting an inhibitor into the reactor, and adding diluents to reduce the reaction rate.
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