Chemical Process Safety: Fundamentals with Applications, Third Edition

Chapter 8. Chemical Reactivity

Reactive chemical hazards have resulted in many accidents in industrial operations and laboratories. Preventing reactive chemical accidents requires the following steps, which are discussed in this chapter:

1. Background understanding. This includes case histories and important definitions. Case histories provide an understanding of the consequences, frequency, and breadth of reactive chemical accidents. Definitions provide a common fundamental basis for understanding. This is presented in Section 8-1 and supplemented with Chapter 14, “Case Histories.”

2. Commitment, awareness, and identification of reactive chemical hazards. This is achieved through proper management and the application of several methods to identify ...