Homogeneous safety aspects

A range of reactions have been reported which take place between two solids under the influence of mechanical agitation such as ball milling. A reasonably large range of reachon types has been reported [59]. Concerns over homogeneity and reproducibility at scale plus process safety aspects of the control of exothermic reachons may mean that this technology could only be of interest in a very limited number of cases. 

Winters, C. E., and A. VI. Weinberg,. 4 Report on The Safety Aspects of the Homogeneous Reactor Experiment, US.VEC Report ORNL-731, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Aug. 29, 19,50. 

There are some aspects of process design in which decisions are based primarily on past experience rather than on quantitative performance models. Problems of this type include the selection of constraction materials, the selection of appropriate models for evaluating the physical properties of homogeneous and heterogeneous mixtures of components, and the selection of safety systems. Advances in expert systems technology and information management will have a profound impact on expressing the solutions to these problems. 

The dual treatment in the Buhler botde-to-bottle process is an important aspect in food safety considerations. The bulk of the contaminants are removed in the extruder. However, the SSP process provides a back-up to remove any residual contaminants, which are now homogeneously distributed in the PET pellets. The cleaning becomes a well-defined and predictable diffusion controlled process, which is defined by pellet diameter, treatment temperature and time. The same parameters also regulate the SSP process. For products with similar reactivity, a known increase in molecular weight during the solid-state process will also provide a known cleaning efficiency. 

For most other aspects such as catalyst stability and sensitivity, handling problems, catalyst separation, space-time yield, poisoning, chemoselectivity, process sensitivity, toxicity, safety, special equipment, etc., enantioselective catalysts have similar problems and requirements compared to nonehiral homogeneous catalysts. 

Arpentinier Ph, Cavani F, Trifiro F. The contribution of homogeneous reactions in catalytic oxidation process safety and selectivity aspects. Catal Today 2005 99 15-22. 

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