Comparative analysis of kinetic-free thermal runaway criteria for semi-batch isoperibolic homogeneous exothermic reaction

For the semi-batch isoperibolic homogeneous exothermic reaction, the dosing rate is an effective method to control the exothermic rate. In this work, the esterification of propionic anhydride and sec-butanol is taken as an example to obtain the heat of reaction by considering the heat of mixing effect. The effect of dosing rates on reaction temperature and heat transfer efficiency are investigated for the semi-batch reaction system. The dosing rate is optimized by kinetic-free thermal runaway criteria based on Ψ number and the ν_ADaREκ-X_ac,max & Ry_min-Wt plots. The effect of cooling jacket temperature on the optimal dosing rates calculated by the criteria is investigated. The obtained results have been compared with the boundary and temperature diagrams criterion. The results show that safe operation conditions can be approximately obtained when lack of kinetic information for semi-batch reaction process. This work can provide a guidance which can facilitate the optimization of dosing rate to improve reaction efficiency and prevent thermal runaway.