Journal of Loss Prevention in The Process Industries, Vol.57, 34-40, 2019
Effect of inorganic salt and organic acid on the thermal runaway of hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide with the presence of catalytic metal ions or incompatible organic matters has caused some fire and explosion accidents in recent years. This work further studied the effect of inorganic salt and organic acid on the thermal runaway behaviour of hydrogen peroxide via rapid screening device (RSD), accelerating rate calorimeter (ARC) and a batch reactor. Experimental results revealed that both the metal ions and their corresponding inorganic acid ions have significant influences on the thermal runaway of H2O2: the catalytic effect of metal ion followed Fe2+ > Fe3+ > Cu2+, and the synergistic effect of inorganic acid ion followed Cl- > SO42-. No explosion was detected under RSD and ARC test conditions. In addition, a one-step global reaction kinetic model characterized as adiabatic temperature increase and final exothermic temperature was briefly described to estimate the kinetic parameters of the mixture of H2O2 with/without organic acid. The analysis showed that the runaway reaction of H2O2 with formic acid or acetic acid is a first order reaction at a low temperature range ( < 100 degrees C) and the thermal runaway risk of H2O2/HCOOH > H2O2/CH3COOH, along with the decreasing apparent activation energy and pre-exponential factor.