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ioKinetic Insights Summer 2023
It is a common practice to insulate storage tanks containing reactive chemicals to protect against fire exposure. While this mitigation technique is appropriate for vessels handling non-reactive chemicals, reactive chemicals storage represents a special challenge and must be examined on a case-by-case basis. For certain classes of reactive chemicals, given a sufficiently long hold time, the insulation will always lead to a runaway reaction. Read more
ioKinetic Insights Spring 2023
Direct scale-up methods have been used to develop relief requirements and vent sizing for runaway reactions since the early 1990s. Direct scale-up methods have been popular because one is able to measure in a laboratory test the required relief size in equivalent vent area per unit mass of a reacting mixture, in 2/kg, and then scale it up to plant scale equipment sizes. The primary advantage of the direct scale-up methods is simplicity. The user does not have to provide thermodynamic, physical, and transport properties or use complex models for relief sizing. However, direct scale-up methods have a lot of disadvantages and are not capable of providing all the information for safe and optimal design that is now required by recognized and generally accepted good engineering practice (RAGAGEP). Read more
ioKinetic Insights Spring 2022
Implementing the Combustible Dust Hazard Assessment Flow chart. For process equipment, this is straightforward. Does a sufficient amount of combustible dust exist to cause enclosure rupture if suspended and ignited? Is a means of suspending the dust present? If the answer to both is yes, the equipment presents a dust explosion hazard and should be included in the PHA. Read more
ioKinetic Insights Fall 2021
Regarding vessels and tubes containing combustible gases or dusts, it is important to acquire knowledge on the conditions under which a fuel and oxidizer could undergo explosive reactions. These conditions are strongly dependent on the pressure and temperature. Given a premixed fuel-oxidizer system at room temperature and ambient pressure, the mixture is essentially unreactive. However, if an ignition source is applied locally and the composition of the mixture is within certain limits (the so-called flammability limits), a region of explosive reaction can propagate through the gaseous mixture due to mainly two phenomena. Read more
Insights Summer 2021
Inhibitors are chemical substances that are used in small amounts to suppress the polymerization reaction of a monomer. An inhibitor has to be completely consumed before a polymerization reaction can proceed at normal rates. The time required to completely consume the inhibitor is often referred to as an “induction” time. Inhibitors react with polymerization initiation radicals to produce products that cannot induce further reaction. Read more
Spring 2021 Newsletter
Explosions can occur in vessels or enclosures containing flammable gases and/or dusts. Explosion venting, often referred to as deflagration venting (because we cannot practically vent detonations), is used to protect from catastrophic vessel/enclosure fai Read more