FUNDAMENTAL THERMAL HAZARD INVESTIGATION FOR
TERT-BUTYL PEROXIDE REACTOR USING DSC AND TGA
TECHNIQUES
Meng-Lung Lin1, Sheng-Hung Wu1, Yu-Chuan Chou2, Chi-Min Shu1,2*
1
Doctoral Program, Graduate School of Engineering Science and Technology, National
Yunlin University of Science and Technology (NYUST), 123,
University Rd., Sec. 3, Douliou, Yunlin, Taiwan 64002, ROC
2
Process Safety and Disaster Prevention Laboratory, Department of Safety, Health, and
Environmental Engineering, NYUST, 123, University Rd., Sec. 3, Douliou, Yunlin, Taiwan
64002, ROC
*
E-mail address: shucm@yuntech.edu.tw
Abstract
Tert-butyl peroxide (TBPO) is a typical organic peroxide that has caused many thermal
runaway reactions and explosions. Due to unknown and insufficient hazard information,
differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) were
employed to determine the fundamental thermokinetic parameters that involved exothermic
onset temperature (T0), heat of decomposition (ΔHd), and other safety parameters for loss
prevention of runaway reactions and thermal explosions. Frequency factor (A) and activation
energy (Ea) were calculated by Kissinger model, and Ozawa equation via DSC experimental
data. In view of loss prevention, calorimetric applications and model evaluation to integrate
thermal hazard development were adequate means for inherently safer design.
Keywords: tert-butyl peroxide (TBPO), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), exothermic
onset temperature (T0), heat of decomposition (ΔHd), activation energy (Ea)