Development of a hazard index for reactivity management (HIRM) in chemical process

Abstract

The management of reactivity hazards has long been a problem in chemical process and the indexing approach is believed to be an effective solution. However, while most of the reactivity indexes do not consider the runaway scenario and are often quite rough, the assessment criteria used to judge thermal runaway does not take the type of scenario or the severity of the consequences into account. At present, there are no index system that can represent the reactivity hazards in chemical process comprehensively. Therefore, this paper has developed a hazard index for reactivity management (HIRM) in chemical processes. The reactivity hazards could be identified, evaluated and managed through nine steps defined by this method. The HIRM method is able to assess various runaway scenarios and quantify the reactivity hazards based on the consequence and probability. The consequence is rated by the damage radius which represents the damage level caused by fire, explosion, and toxic release due to reaction runaway. The probability indicates the initial event frequency, the initiation time and the controllability of the entire runaway process. The reactivity risks could then be classified by the HIRM index uniformly and comprehensively, with methods to manage the risks proposed. Six sets of equipment in the dicumyl peroxide (DCP) production unit was used as an example to demonstrate the construction of the HIRM index system. The results showed good agreement with the actual risk distribution, meaning that the HIRM method is an effective tool for the management of reactivity hazards in chemical process.