Handbook for Process Safety in Laboratories and Pilot Plants

10 Types of Hazards

This chapter is intended to provide an overview of some common hazards in the LAPP. The first few sections will cover hazards associated with process safety, such as reactive chemistry, toxicity, flammability, combustibility, overpressure, and temperature. The last section will cover other common LAPP hazards, such as cryogenic fluids, compressed gases, incompatible materials, and glassware.

10.1 Reactive Chemistry Hazards

10.1.1 Overview of Reactive Chemistry

Safe synthesis, recovery, purification, storage, transport, and use of chemical products require understanding the physical and thermodynamic properties of the compounds, the reactive chemistry, and the reaction kinetics. This understanding should include the range of conditions that may exist under plausible scenarios (e.g., possible temperature excursions in chemical reaction vessels, in recovery and purification equipment, or during storage and transport).

For newly discovered substances, their reaction intermediates, or their by‐products formed during their synthesis, limited information is available on the reaction kinetics and the material’s physical and thermodynamic properties. Initial identification and assessment of reactive chemical hazards may be based on theoretical calculation methods and/or extrapolations from knowledge of similar compounds or synthesis reactions. Testing methods are needed to fill data gaps for the reactive hazards, as well. The theoretical estimates and the types ...