Abstract
Water reactive chemicals are generally aggressive materials that are
used widely in the process industries. Common water reactive substances
are sulphur trioxide, oleum, titanium tetrachloride, silicon tetrachloride,
chlorosulphonic acid, chloroacetyl chloride and phosphorus trichloride.
When released to the atmosphere, water reactive materials generally
react readily with any free ground water, substrate water and atmospheric
water. The exact nature, kinetics and thermodynamics of these reactions
govern the subsequent consequences of a release. Consequence modelling
and dispersion analysis of water reactive materials is notoriously
difficult due to the uncertainties surrounding the reaction with
water. Very little experimental data are available on the release
behaviour of many water reactive materials. There are often discrepancies
and gaps in the data available on the liquid phase hydrolysis reaction;
these discrepancies can be as extreme as whether the reaction is
exothermic or endothermic. This paper will use a case study to show
how the behaviour of water reactive materials has been incorporated
into safety and environmental risk assessments, in particular for
the purposes of the predictive aspects of COMAH Safety Reports.
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