US EPA

2598422 

Book/Book Chapter 

Hydrocarbon Oxidation and Gas Explosion Safety: Project SAFEKINEX Overview 

Pasman, HJ 

2008 

PROGRESS IN SAFETY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SERIES 

7 

1081-1095 

WOS:000264182100206 

Hydrocarbon oxidation is still a growing field of industrial interest and provides for our needs for a large variety of substances and materials. As soon as hydrocarbon and oxygen are brought in contact a potential combustion hazard problem arises.To stay safe the concentration of oxygen is kept at n low level so that there still is considerable margin to the range of concentration flammability or at least spontaneous ignition. On the other hand there is a drive to increase conversion per pass through reactors, since recycle consumes energy and causes pollution. Industrial processes usually take place at elevated conditions (up to 500 degrees C and 50 bar) while gas explosion safety has been investigated extensively only at or close to ambient conditions. At the same time the knowledge about oxidation mechanisms is growing quickly now computer simulation of the thousands of validated reaction steps become more widely used. In the EU sponsored project SAFFKINEX (www.safekinex.org) there are dual objectives to further develop both the the explosion safety knowledge and the kinetic interpretation from a fundamental standpoint, The marriage is intended to produce an important contribution for a better understanding of the phenomena that may cause process hazards and to provide models from which tools can be developed to control the processes better or enable improved design. The paper gives an overview of the results described in the final report. 

gas explosion; explosion safety; hydrocarbon oxidation; chemical kinetics; explosion models