(147a) Improvements in the Safety Screening of Resin Manufacturing Processes

Consequences of acrylic resin reactor runaways can be devastating, as it is evident in investigation reports of industrial accidents. Critical in preventing major accidents is the safety screening of any acrylic resin formula to be manufactured in large scale. Computer model simulations facilitate the evaluation of "layers of protection" against acrylic polymerization runaways.

This work describes the adaptation of a chemical process dynamic simulator (DuPont? TMODS?) for use in simulating acrylic polymerization runaways. "Loss of cooling" and "monomer pooling" scenarios are the causes of these runaways. Simulations show that scenarios leading to "monomer pooling" result to more energetic runaways and larger emergency relief capacity requirements than "loss of cooling" scenarios.