Optimization of Chemical Reactor Feed by Simulations Based on a Kinetic Approach

Abstract

Chemical incidents are typically caused by loss of control, resulting in runaway reactions or process deviations in different stages of the production. In the case of fed-batch reactors, the problem generally encountered is the accumulation of heat. This is directly related to the temperature of the process, the reaction kinetics and adiabatic temperature rise, which is the maximum temperature attainable in the event of cooling failure. The main possibility to control the heat accumulation is the use of a well-controlled adapted feed. The feed rate can be adjusted by using reaction and reactor dynamic models coupled to Model Predictive Control. Thereby, it is possible to predict the best feed profile respecting the safety constraints.

Keywords

• Calorimetry
• Optimization
• Reaction kinetics
• Risk assessment
• Thermal safety