Non-routine reactor shutdown method

Abstract

Abnormal (i.e., emergency) shutdown of a chemical reaction process is accomplished by a method of safely operating a chemical reaction process that includes the steps of detecting adverse conditions that can affect the reaction process, minimizing the reaction of reactants, and maintaining The flow of material in the reaction zone of the process to displace the reaction mixture from the reaction zone. The flow of material is maintained for a period of time to displace substantially all of the reaction mixture from the reaction zone, thereby flushing the reaction zone. The reaction mixture can then be flushed into an auxiliary vessel, such as an absorption column.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a method of operating chemical process hardware during an emergency shutdown situation, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a method of monitoring a partial oxidation reaction process and safely stopping the reaction process when required. Background technique [0002] The chemistry for preparing oxidation products such as carboxylic acids, anhydrides, nitriles and alkylene oxides is well known. The core of these chemical processes is the partial oxidation reaction method, which includes a catalytic oxidation reactor with controllable conditions such as temperature, pressure and reaction rate. These reaction processes generally involve providing a feedstock, such as a mixture of reactive hydrocarbons and oxygen, to one or more reaction zones contained within a reaction apparatus. Each reaction zone contains one or more catalysts capable of catalyzing the oxidation of active hydrocarbons to various o...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Given this possibility, one drawback of simply terminating the feed to the reactor is that potentially explosive mixtures may become trapped in the reactor

In addition, when the feed and feed are stopped or excessively reduced, there is no way to vent the reactor, and the possibility of reactant and product reflux (i.e., backflow) into the reactor increases.

Therefore, the procedure of simply terminating and reducing the feed of material to the reactor does not eliminate the hazardous condition and still leaves the reactor with the potential for fire or explosion

[0010] Termination of flow into the reactor also does not respond appropriately to other adverse conditions, such as loss of reactor volume (e.g., reactor leak) or runaway reaction during the reaction

This means that the same response cannot be used for multiple parking scenarios, thus increasing operational complexity

Images