George A. Kalfas, DuPont Marshall Research Laboratory, 3401 Grays Ferry Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19146, Todd M. Krieger, DuPont Engineering and Research Technology, Brandywine Building B9400, 1007 Market Street, Wilmington, DE 19898, and Ross P. Wilcox, DuPont Engineering Research and Technology, Brandywine Building, 1007 Market Street, Wilmington, DE 19898.
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.