Process Troubleshooting and Process Technology Development via Reaction Calorimetry

Reaction calorimetry is a standard lab measurement technique to understand the energy released or absorbed due to chemical reactions.  Energy transferred from a chemical reaction, in the form of heat, is directly proportional to the rate of reaction.  Consequently, calorimetry measurements can be used to study reaction kinetics and assess the impact of process variations.  

Production of some silicone fluids involve highly exothermic chemistries and these chemistries can be very sensitive to changes in raw material impurities.  When production of an established silicone fluid process began to exhibit out of control product quality signals, a quick assessment of the production process conditions revealed that the reaction temperature profile had changed.  To accomplish a process evaluation, the production process was scaled-down to the lab scale and reaction calorimetry was employed to study the reaction kinetics.  Analysis of the resulting experimental data was used to identify a production change in one of the raw materials as the root cause.  

By understanding and monitoring kinetics through reaction calorimetry, a process technology to mitigate the impact of a trace impurity was developed and scaled up to the production process.  This poster outlines the use of reaction calorimetry to troubleshoot a production upset and its use to develop a process technology that improved process robustness due to raw material variation.