ISSEP 204 – Chemical Reactivity Hazards

Course Overview

Chemical reactivity hazards are among the most challenging process safety issues facing practicing engineers. Unlike many other hazards, they originate from internal chemical energy release and can escalate rapidly when process conditions move outside safe limits. This makes them highly dependent on operating conditions, scale, system design, and the quality of available data.

ISSEP 204 – Chemical Reactivity Hazards provides a practical, engineering-focused introduction to identifying, characterizing, and managing reactive chemical systems. The course builds directly on ISSEP 203: Process Hazard Analysis and reinforces concepts from ISSEP 202: Relief System Design, creating a clear workflow for evaluating reactive hazards in real process environments.

This course is designed for engineers who want more than a general awareness of runaway reactions. Learners are introduced to the engineering workflow of Identify → Characterize → Protect, and the course emphasizes how data from reactive calorimetry, including VSP testing, can be translated into design decisions, operating limits, safeguards, and relief system considerations.

The course concludes with a representative Grignard reagent formation case study, showing how reactive hazard concepts are applied in practice using calorimetry interpretation, pressure behavior analysis, and layered protection strategies.

What You Will Learn

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

  • Differentiate chemical reactivity hazards from other hazard classes
  • Identify common types of reactive chemical systems
  • Evaluate process conditions and system factors that influence the likelihood and severity of reactive hazards
  • Apply reactive hazard identification methods, including recognition of deviations that can initiate runaway reactions
  • Interpret reactive calorimetry data with emphasis on VSP calorimeter outputs
  • Explain how reactive hazard data informs relief system design
  • Describe engineering and administrative controls used to prevent or mitigate reactive chemical incidents
  • Apply lessons learned from a reactive incident case study to improve hazard identification, system design, and operational decision-making

Course Format

This course is organized into eight modules:

  1. Introduction to Chemical Reactivity Hazards
  2. Types of Reactive Hazards
  3. Factors Influencing Reactivity
  4. Reactive Hazard Identification and Calorimetry
  5. Common Reactive Chemical Systems
  6. Prevention and Mitigation Strategies
  7. Relief System Design for Reactive Systems
  8. Case Study Application

The course combines concise, reference-quality slides with engineering-focused explanation to help learners understand not only what reactive hazards are, but how practicing engineers evaluate and manage them.

Why This Course Matters

Reactive systems often challenge assumptions that work well for other process safety problems. Temperature excursions, accumulation, contamination, poor mixing, and scale-up effects can all transform a controllable process into a runaway event. The resulting pressure rise may be driven by vaporization, gas generation, or both, and traditional vapor-only assumptions may fail under reactive relief conditions.

This course is intended to help engineers build a more complete mental model of reactive hazards by connecting:

  • Reaction type and chemical class
  • Process conditions and system behavior
  • Calorimetry data and engineering interpretation
  • Safeguards, layered protection, and relief system design

Technical Topics Covered

Key technical content includes:

  • Runaway reactions, decomposition, incompatibility reactions, redox hazards, and polymerization systems
  • Heat generation versus heat removal
  • Temperature sensitivity and Time to Maximum Rate (TMR)
  • Reactive calorimetry fundamentals
  • DSC, ARC, ARRST, and VSP calorimeters
  • Adiabatic temperature rise, onset temperature, MTSR, heat release rate, and pressure behavior
  • Using temperature as a proxy for conversion under adiabatic conditions
  • Estimating kinetic behavior from calorimetry data
  • Why reactive systems often require specialized relief design
  • Two-phase flow considerations and the role of DIERS methodology
  • Layered protection strategies for reactive systems

Case Study Application

A major feature of the course is a realistic case study involving Grignard reagent formation in an ether-based solvent system. This example is used to illustrate how engineers move from hazard identification to calorimetry interpretation, pressure analysis, and protection strategy development. The case also highlights the importance of distinguishing between pressure caused by solvent vaporization and pressure caused by gas generation, because that distinction directly affects relief design and safeguard selection.

Who Should Take This Course

This course is designed for:

  • Chemical engineers
  • Process engineers
  • Process safety engineers
  • Production and operations engineers
  • EHS professionals supporting chemical processes
  • Advanced undergraduate and graduate students interested in process safety

It is especially useful for engineers involved in:

  • Batch and semi-batch processing
  • Reactive chemistry
  • Process hazard analysis
  • Relief system design
  • Scale-up and process development
  • Management of change reviews

Course Relationship to Other ISSEP Courses

ISSEP 204 fits within the broader ISSEP process safety pathway:

  • ISSEP 201 – Risk Assessment
  • ISSEP 202 – Relief System Design
  • ISSEP 203 – Process Hazard Analysis
  • ISSEP 204 – Reactivity Hazard Analysis and Characterization

Together, these courses form a practical and integrated framework for managing chemical process risk.

Assessment and PDH Credit

Learners who complete the course and pass the 20-question multiple choice quiz with a score of 80% or higher will earn 2 Professional Development Hours. A certificate of completion is provided.

Instructor

Jeffrey R. Seay, PhD, PE, FAIChE
Professor of Chemical Engineering
Institute for Sustainable & Safe Engineering Practice

Dr. Seay brings both academic and industrial experience to this course, with prior work in process design, process safety, relief sizing, and risk assessment. ISSEP courses are designed to translate core process safety concepts into practical engineering tools that learners can apply in industry.

Recommended References

The course encourages continued use of established technical and regulatory references, including:

  • CCPS – Essential Practices for Managing Chemical Reactivity Hazards
  • CCPS – Guidelines for Safe Storage and Handling of Reactive Materials
  • CCPS – Guidelines for Chemical Reactivity Evaluation and Application to Process Design
  • DIERS Project Manual and related publications
  • OSHA Process Safety Management (29 CFR 1910.119)
  • EPA Risk Management Program (40 CFR Part 68)
  • CSB investigation reports and recommendations
  • Crowl & Louvar, Chemical Process Safety: Fundamentals with Applications
  • Bretherick, Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards
  • NFPA codes and ASTM screening methods

Call to Action

If your work involves reactive chemistry, batch processing, scale-up, or process safety decision-making, ISSEP 204 – Chemical Reactivity Hazards will provide a structured and practical introduction to one of the most important—and most misunderstood—areas of chemical process safety.

Enroll today and strengthen your ability to identify, characterize, and manage reactive chemical hazards with confidence.

https://issep-education.thinkific.com/products/courses/ISSEP204