A general criterion to define runaway limits in chemical reactors

Ageneralrunawaycriterion valid for single as well as for multiple reaction types, i.e. consecutive, parallel, equilibrium, and mixed kinetics reactions, and for several types of reactors, i.e. batch reactor (BR), semibatch reactor (SBR) and continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) has been developed. Furthermore, different types of operating conditions, i.e. isoperibolic and isothermal (control system), have been analysed. The criterion says that we are in arunaway situation when the divergence of the system becomes positive (div>0) on a segment of the reaction path. The results show that this is ageneralrunawaycriterion than can be used to calculate the runawaylimits for chemicalreactors. The runawaylimits have been compared with previous criteria. A considerable advantage, over existing criteria, is that it can be calculated on-line using only temperature measurements and, hence, it constitutes the core of an early warning runaway detection system we are developing.