Comparison of the Results from Six Calorimeters in the Determination of the Thermokinetics of a Model Reaction

摘要

This paper deals with the comparison of experimental results from several types of commerciallyavailable calorimeters: a screening calorimeter (DSC), a Calvet calorimeter (C80), a reactioncalorimeter (RC1), and various pseudo-adiabatic calorimeters (VSP 2, ARSST, and Phi-Tec 1).One exothermic reaction was selected as a case study: the esterification of acetic anhydride bymethanol, a system which has been well studied in the literature. This reaction is put to the test inthe six calorimeters under similar operating conditions. The objective of this series of tests is toobtain the thermo-kinetics of the reaction with each apparatus and compare the results. The goalis to determine which calorimetric method can be used (or not be used) for what purpose withrespect to the reactive chemistry hazard. This approach gives also the opportunity to illustrateand summarize the potential of the experimental tools used in a complete risk assessment of aparticular chemical process. The result can also be used in the education field as a simple andcomplete model of a case study.