LAPSE:2021.0656
Published Article
LAPSE:2021.0656
Thermal Hazard Analysis of Styrene Polymerization in Microreactor of Varying Diameter
Junjie Wang, Lei Ni, Jiawei Cui, Juncheng Jiang, Kuibin Zhou
July 29, 2021
Polymerization is a typical exothermic reaction in the fine chemical industry, which is easy to cause thermal runaway. In order to lower the thermal runaway risk of polymerization, a microreactor was adopted in this study to carry out styrene thermal polymerization. The hydrodynamic model and the fluid−solid coupling model of thermal polymerization of styrene were combined by using the computation fluid dynamics (CFD) method to build a three-dimensional steady-state model of the batch and the microreactor and compare. The results indicated that the maximum temperature of the polymerization in the microreactor was only 150.23 °C, while in the batch reactor, it was up to 371.1 °C. Therefore, the reaction temperature in the microreactor could be controlled more effectively compared with that in the batch reactor. During the reaction process, jacket cooling may fail, which would lead to an adiabatic situation. According to the divergence criterion (DIV), the thermal runaway of the polymerization occurred in microreactors with different tube diameters under an adiabatic situation. Further, the diameter of the microreactor had a considerable effect on the distribution of the inside temperature field under normal jacket cooling. The maximum temperature difference in the microreactor with a diameter of 6 mm was controlled at 25.33 °C. However, the effects of the inlet velocity (0.001, 0.0015, 0.002, 0.0025, 0.003 m/s), jacket temperature (150, 170, 180, 190, 200 °C) and residence time (400, 500, 600, 750 s) were relatively small. In addition, the jacket temperature had significant effects on viscosity, while other conditions had little effect. The DIV criterion indicated that the styrene thermal polymerization reactions could be safely performed in the microreactor when the jacket was cooled normally.
Keywords
Computational Fluid Dynamics, microreactor, styrene polymerization, thermal runaway
Suggested Citation
Wang J, Ni L, Cui J, Jiang J, Zhou K. Thermal Hazard Analysis of Styrene Polymerization in Microreactor of Varying Diameter. (2021). LAPSE:2021.0656
Author Affiliations
Wang J: College of Safety Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China; Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Hazardous Chemicals Safety and Control, Nanjing 211816, China
Ni L: College of Safety Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China; Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Hazardous Chemicals Safety and Control, Nanjing 211816, China [ORCID]
Cui J: College of Safety Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China; Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Hazardous Chemicals Safety and Control, Nanjing 211816, China
Jiang J: College of Safety Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China; Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Hazardous Chemicals Safety and Control, Nanjing 211816, China; School of Environment and Safety Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzh
Zhou K: College of Safety Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China; Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Hazardous Chemicals Safety and Control, Nanjing 211816, China
Journal Name
Processes
Volume
8
Issue
12
Article Number
E1650
Year
2020
Publication Date
2020-12-14
Published Version
ISSN
2227-9717
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PII: pr8121650, Publication Type: Journal Article
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LAPSE:2021.0656
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doi:10.3390/pr8121650
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Jul 29, 2021
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