PresentationIncidents involving uncontrolled chemical reactions continue to result in fatality, injury and economic loss. These incidents are often the result of inadequate pressure relief system designs due to a limited knowledge of the chemical reactivity hazard. A safe process design requires knowledge of the chemical reactivity of desired as well as undesired chemical reactions due to upset conditions. Simplified, cost effective methods to relief system sizing are presented by The Design Institute of Emergency Relief Systems (DIERS). They require multiple experiments and sizing is only valid for the system composition and thermal inertia represented by the small scale experiments. Results are often conservative, especially for gassy systems. Detailed, dynamic computer simulation is highly accurate and can be used for iterative design and multiple scenario evaluation. In this study, an accelerating rate calorimeter (ARC®) and a low thermal inertia calorimeter (automatic pressure tracking adiabatic calorimeter – APTACTM) were used to collect chemical reactivity data for the dicumyl peroxide and toluene system. Results of the pressure relief system sizing using the two methodologies are presented and compared
