Safety Assessment and Optimization of Semi-batch Reactions by Calorimetry

Abstract

Semi-batch reactors are widely spread in the fine chemicals and specialties industry. The reason is that, compared to the pure batch operation, the feed of at least one of the reactants provides an additional way of controlling the reaction course, which represents a safety factor and increases the constancy of the product quality. Process temperature and feed rate can be optimized to satisfy safety constraints, i.e. cooling capacity and allowable accumulation. An economically better way of operating a semi-batch reactor is to adapt the feed rate to the allowed accumulation of reactants. An experimental method based on calorimetry will be presented and illustrated by an example.