IDENTIFYING HAZARDOUS CHEMICAL-REACTIVITY - A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

Hazardous chemical reactivity is chemical reaction that can produce de tonation, deflagration or runaway reaction, which can possibly lead to thermal explosion. In the course of the development of a chemical man ufacturing process, the raw materials, process streams, isolated inter mediates, final product (and the variations of these that are likely t o be caused by some process upset) must all be evaluated to determine the potential of each for hazardous chemical reactivity. Although toxi c, ecotoxic and flammability hazards may also result from reactivity, this short article is Limited to a review of the general strategy and thermal analytical methods used to identify hazards due to the rapid a nd uncontrolled release of energy by reaction. It is intended as an in troduction to the field, and so provides numerous references to the ba sic sources.