Balancing Emergency Relief System size and plant productivity in multipurpose chemical reactors

• Published in: Journal of loss prevention in the process industries 2022-05, Vol.76, p.104742, Article 104742
• Main Authors: Florit, Federico, Lunghi, Angelo, Rota, Renato
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Batchsize; Emergency relief system; ERS sizing; Multipurpose; Safety
• ISSN: 0950-4230
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jlp.2022.104742

The proper design of an emergency relief system (ERS) is usually an expensive operation in multipurpose chemical reactors (such as in the polymer or pharmaceutical industry). In fact, the application of standard techniques would usually suggest to change the entire ERS every time the product to be synthesized is changed. Additionally the knowledge of the physical–chemical properties of the contents of the reactor should be determined. This work provides a simple way to design the filling level of a reactor already equipped with an ERS in order to allow a safe relief in case of emergency. This way, there is no need to change the ERS every time the recipe is changed. Moreover, a few classes of chemical compounds were identified allowing to find general correlations for the filling level of the reactor, based on few simple and easily-measurable quantities, without the need to run complex calculations and, most importantly, without having to find the physical–chemical properties of the system analyzed. •A simple way to estimate the filling level of a reactor already equipped with an ERS is provided.•The maximum filling level can be estimated through simple correlations.•Practitioners can easily assess if the installed ERS is suitable for a given recipe.