Experimental Strategies for the Identification of Products Formed in the Loss of Control of Chemical Systems

Severe accidents were caused by the unforeseen formation of hazardous substances in the loss of control of chemical systems. Several studies performed in recent years evidenced that a range of experimental techniques and of different operating conditions is available to obtain information on substances that may be formed in “out of control” conditions. Nevertheless, the characteristics of the experimental devices as well as the operating conditions of experimental runs often result in important differences in the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the products formed in experimental runs. Thus, the development of specific experimental strategies for the simulation of the accidental scenarios of interest is of fundamental importance in order to obtain reliable and reproducible reference data on the products that may be formed in the loss of control of an industrial chemical process. An approach to the problem is presented. The results were applied to the study of products formed in the loss of control of two chemical systems of industrial interest.