Application of response surface methodology for hazard analysis of 2-butanol oxidation to 2-butanone using RC1 calorimetry

In order to scale-up highly exothermic reactions for industrial use within the process industries, cooling requirements for these reactions must be determined so as to prevent thermal runaway and associated incidents. In this work, response surface methodology is utilized to identify operating regions for the synthesis of 2-butanone from 2-butanol that minimize the total heat released, based on the three parameters of initial 2-butanol concentration, titanium silicalite-1 amount, and operating temperature. For this, it was demonstrated that the 2butanol concentration plays a more significant role in the total heat release compared with the reaction temperatures and catalyst amounts. Furthermore, a 2-butanol concentration of approximately 0.5 mol/L combined with either a low amount of titanium silicalite-1 of approximately 8 g (2.4 wt %) or high amount of approximately 15 g (4.8 wt %) resulted in higher total heat release amounts. This provides useful data regarding the combinations of parameters that will result in sufficiently low heat release amounts for the cooling capacity of industrial facilities when the reaction is scaled up for synthesis within the facilities.

Automated summary

Response surface methodology was used to identify operating regions for the synthesis of 2-butanone from 2-butanol that minimize total heat released, showing that 2-butanol concentration has a more significant impact on total heat release compared to reaction temperatures and catalyst amounts.