MODELING OF THE VENTED METHANOL ACETIC-ANHYDRIDE RUNAWAY REACTION USING SAFIRE

Venting experiments were carried out during thermal runaway chemical reactions to evaluate the predictive performance of the coupled thermodynamic fluid-dynamic and the reaction kinetic parts of the SAFIRE code. The exothermic esterification of acetic anhydride and methanol served as the model reaction. Overall, with SAFIRE it is possible to qualitatively predict the transient reactor pressure during venting of a runaway reaction. It is possible to reproduce the influence of a variation in initial vessel liquid level or cross-sectional area of the discharge line on the transient pressure. The calculated reactor pressure profile deviates in terms of absolute values from the measured profile, indicating that the computer code needs to be further extended by introducing improved physical models.