Reaction Inhibition as a Method for PreventingThermal Runaway in Industrial Processes

摘要

In this work inhibitors were used to prevent runaway reactions duringmethylmethacrylate suspension polymerization processes. The main problem thatmay more frequently occur in chemical reactors, carrying out free radical polymeri-zation reactions, is the loss of temperature control. The addition of an inhibitorduring polymerization processes can be considered as a good method to stop or atthe least slow down the reaction. In this work two inhibitors weie used: hydroquinoneand 1,4-benzoquinone in a series of polymerization experiments. In order to identifysituations that can lead to a runaway reaction, an early warning detection systembased on the divergence criterion was used. When this system signalled an alarm,small amounts of inhibitor were added to the reaction mixture. The results showedthat hydroquinone and 1,4-benzoquinone behave slightly differently and the reactortemperature can be kept within safe limits.