• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.32-38
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• 2020

Based on the cases of fire and explosion accident in the chemical reactor, thr problems of preventive measures installed in the chemical reactor were analyzed. The chemical reactors produce a variety of chemicals and install rupture disk to relieve the pressure that rises sharply in the event of a runaway reaction. In order to maintain the function of the rupture disk, the emissions was allowed to be discharged into the atmosphere, resulting in fire and explosion accidents. As a way to improve this, safety instrumented system based on the safety integrity level(SIL3) was applied as a preventive measures for chemical reactor. Two emergency shur-off valves are installed in series on pipe dropping raw materials for chemical reactor so that the supply of raw materials can be cut off even if only one of the two emergency shut-off valves is operated during the runaway reaction. The automatic on/off valve is installed in parallel in the supply pipe of the reaction inhibitor so that the reaction inhibitor can be injected even if only one valve is opened at the time of the runaway reaction.

• Proceedings of the Korea Institute of Fire Science and Engineering Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.242-247
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• 2003

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2002

In this case study, results of the explosion accident at MEK-PO factory were analysed by using the consequence analysis of quantitative hazard assessment and the explosion energy, the burst pressure of vessel, and overpressures at the explosion center and at 300m distance from the explosion center were estimated, respectively. As a result, we found that a cause of accident was the runaway reaction of product(MEK-PO) because of the molecular expansion in vessel and that the possibility of the runaway reaction was classified the mechanical failure(the obstacle of refrigerator or the shutdown valve), design error, and operating error by lack of thermochemical knowledge. Also, the evasive action to prevent accident was suggested.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.1-8
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• 2013

The aim of this study is to assess thermal hazards of polystyrene polymerization process by bulk polymerization with accelerating rate calorimeter(ARC) and Multimax reactor system(MM). From this study, we found out that the polymerization process should be operated at reaction temperature of $120^{\circ}C{\sim}130^{\circ}C$. At reaction temperature over $130^{\circ}C$, there was a runaway reaction hazard due to the temperature control failure following a viscosity increase of reaction products. With a cooling failure of a reactor in the early stage of process operation at the reaction temperature ($120^{\circ}C{\sim}130^{\circ}C$), there was a high thermal hazard of burst of a reactor's rupture disk or explosion of a reactor caused by the rapid rise of temperature and pressure to $340^{\circ}C$, 5.3 bar respectively within 30 - 50 minutes.

• International Journal of Safety
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.6-11
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• 2010

Thermal analysis, heating test on gram scale and simulation of exothermic behavior based on kinetic analysis has been conducted in order to evaluate thermal hazards of self-polymerization of MDI. The exothermic reactions of MDI are expected to be the polymerization which forms carbodiimide and carbon dioxide, dimerization and trimerization. When MDI is kept in adiabatic condition during 1 week (10080 hours), the simulated result shows runaway reaction can occur in the case that initial temperature was more than $130^{\circ}C$. The relationship between the initial temperature (T, $^{\circ}C$) and TMR is given in a following equation. TMR=$4.493{\times}10^{-7}$ exp ($9.532{\times}10^3$/(T+273.15)) We propose that the relationship gives important criteria of handling temperature of MDl to prevent a runaway reaction.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.61-65
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• 2010

Most of the chemical reactions performed in the chemical industry are exothermic, meaning that thermal energy is released during the reaction. It is also important to understand the thermal hazards such as thermal stabilities and runaway reactions, which are governed by thermodynamics and reaction kinetics of the mixed materials. The paper was described the evaluation of thermal behavior caused by an exothermic batch process in manufacture of the vinyl acetate resin. The aim of the study was to evaluate the thermal stabilities of raw materials with operating conditions such as a reaction inhibitor, heating rate, reaction atmosphere and the mount of methanol charged in the vinyl acetate polymerization process. The experiments were performed in the differential scanning calorimeter(DSC), C 80 calorimeter, and thermal screening unit($TS^u$). It was suggested that we should provide the thermal characteristics for raw materials to present safe precautions with operating conditions in the vinyl acetate polymerization process.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.54-61
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• 2019

As the market for portable electronic devices expands, the demand for Lithium Ion Battery (LIB) is also increasing. LIB has higher efficiency than other secondary batteries, but there is a risk of explosion / fire due to thermal runaway reaction. Especially, Electric Vehicles (EV) equipped with a large capacity LIB cell also has a danger due to a large amount of toxic gas generated by a fire. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the risk of toxic gas generated by EV fire to minimize accident damage. In this study, the flow of toxic gas generated by EV fire was numerically analyzed using Computational Fluid Dynamic. Scenarios were established based on literature data and EV data to confirm the effect distance according to time and exposure standard. The purpose of this study is to analyze the risk of toxic gas caused by EV fire and to help minimize the loss of life and property caused by accidents.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.385-393
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• 2019

Potential fire, explosion and safety hazards exist in medium- or small-scale chemical plants using radical batch reaction processes due to the various conditions of materials, works or products. To minimize the potential damage, a study was conducted on qualitative hazard analysis using the HAZOP technique, which is a typical method for a qualitative risk assessment and analysis of the potential risks encountered in these chemical plants. For this purpose, a domestic chemical plant, which produces the acrylic resin by a radical batch reaction process, was selected and a risk assessment and analysis according to the procedure of HAZOP method was performed for the process. As the result of the study, to prevent the hazard, the input of inert gas and the installation of a pressure gauge were indispensable. In addition, the initiator and monomer should also be separated, and inhibiting substances and equipment are also necessary to prevent a runaway reaction.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.75-79
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• 2001

For handling and storage of reactive chemicals, the hazard evaluations have been extremely important. In the chemical industry, the most concerns are focused on the thermal harzards such as runaway reactions and thermal decompositions, which are mostly governed by thermodynamics and reaction kinetics or these reactive chemical in the system. This study no investigated the thermal decomposition characteristics of nitrophenylhydrazine isomers by using differential scanning calorimeter(DSC) and accelerating rate calorimeter(ARC). Experimental results showed that exothermic onset-temperatures in nitrophenylhydrazine(NPH) isomers were about 160-$210^{\circ}C$ by DSC and 100-$150^{\circ}C$ by ARC. The decomposition temperature acquired by ARC was about 50-$60^{\circ}C$ lower than that by DSC. Reaction heats were about 40-100cal/g by DSC and 330-750ca1/g by ARC. While ortho isomer of NPH show two distinct exothermic peaks, para isomer shows a single peak in DSC curves. The first exothermic peak for 2-NPH is mainly due to intramolecular dehydration forming 1-hydroxybenzotriazole(HOBT) and the second exothermic peak is mainly due to the decomposition of HOBT formed in the first step of decomposition. The exothermin peak in the DSC curve for 4-NPH is mainly due to dissociation of hydrazino and nitro groups.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.180-185
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• 1998

The evaluation of thermal and pressure hazard of chemicals on the manufacturing, transporting and storaging is important in the chemical industry for safety. In this study, the thermal decomposition characteristics of intermediate of Saccharin were investigated by using Accelerating Rate Calorimeter(ARC) and Differential Scanning Calorimeter(DSC). Experimental results showed that decomposition temperatures in p-TSA were about 280~$318^{\circ}C$ by DSC and $201^{\circ}C$ by ARC. In case of o-TSA were about $336^{\circ}C$~$360.8^{\circ}C$ by DSC and $299^{\circ}C$ by ARC. The decomposition temperature acquired by ARC was about $70^{\circ}C$ lower than that by DSC. The exothermic runaway reaction in case of p-TSA occured in 598 minute and o-TSA in 5 minute. For the safety in the chemical industry, we should consider the ARC data as well as DSC data in the handling and design of process.