Hazards Analysis, Code Compliance & Procedure Development

Services to identify process safety hazards and facilitate compliance with established standards and codes.

Combustible Dust Testing

Laboratory testing to quantify dust explosion and reactivity hazards

Flammable Gas & Vapor Testing

Laboratory testing to quantify explosion hazards for vapor and gas mixtures

Chemical Reactivity Testing

Laboratory testing to quantify reactive chemical hazards, including the possibility of material incompatibility, instability, and runaway chemical reactions

ISO Accreditation and Scope
Fauske & Associates fulfills the requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 in the field of Testing
DIERS Methodology

Design emergency pressure relief systems to mitigate the consequences of unwanted chemical reactivity and account for two-phase flow using the right tools and methods

Deflagrations (Dust/Vapor/Gas)

Properly size pressure relief vents to protect your processes from dust, vapor, and gas explosions

Effluent Handling

Pressure relief sizing is just the first step and it is critical to safety handle the effluent discharge from an overpressure event

Thermal Stability

Safe storage or processing requires an understanding of the possible hazards associated with sensitivity to variations in temperature

UN-DOT

Classification of hazardous materials subject to shipping and storage regulations

Safety Data Sheets

Develop critical safety data for inclusion in SDS documents

Biological

Model transport of airborne virus aerosols to guide safe operations and ventilation upgrades

Radioactive

Model transport of contamination for source term and leak path factor analysis

Fire Analysis

Model transport of heat and smoke for fire analysis

Flammable or Toxic Gas

transport of flammable or toxic gas during a process upset

OSS consulting, adiabatic & reaction calorimetry and consulting

Onsite safety studies can help identify explosibility and chemical reaction hazards so that appropriate testing, simulations, or calculations are identified to support safe scale up

Mechanical, Piping, and Electrical

Engineering and testing to support safe plant operations and develop solutions to problems in heat transfer, fluid flow, electric power systems

Battery Safety

Testing to support safe design of batteries and electrical power backup facilities particularly to satisfy UL9540a ed.4

Hydrogen Safety

Testing and consulting on the explosion risks associated with devices and processes which use or produce hydrogen

Spent Fuel

Safety analysis for packaging, transport, and storage of spent nuclear fuel

Decommissioning, Decontamination and Remediation (DD&R)

Safety analysis to underpin decommissioning process at facilities which have produced or used radioactive nuclear materials

Laboratory Testing & Software Capabilities

Bespoke testing and modeling services to validate analysis of DD&R processes

Nuclear Overview

Our Nuclear Services Group is recognized for comprehensive evaluations to help commercial nuclear power plants operate efficiently and stay compliant.

Severe Accident Analysis and Risk Assessment

Expert analysis of possible risk and consequences from nuclear plant accidents

Thermal Hydraulics

Testing and analysis to ensure that critical equipment will operate under adverse environmental conditions

Environmental Qualification (EQ) and Equipment Survivability (ES)

Testing and analysis to ensure that critical equipment will operate under adverse environmental conditions

Laboratory Testing & Software Capabilities

Testing and modeling services to support resolution of emergent safety issues at a power plant

Adiabatic Safety Calorimeters (ARSST and VSP2)

Low thermal inertial adiabatic calorimeters specially designed to provide directly scalable data that are critical to safe process design

Other Lab Equipment and Parts for the DSC/ARC/ARSST/VSP2 Calorimeters

Products and equipment for the process safety or process development laboratory

FERST

Software for emergency relief system design to ensure safe processing of reactive chemicals, including consideration of two-phase flow and runaway chemical reactions

FATE

Facility modeling software mechanistically tracks transport of heat, gasses, vapors, and aerosols for safety analysis of multi-room facilities

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Recent Posts

Reaction Calorimetry: Customizable Technique for Safe Process Scale-Up

Posted by Clayton R. Johnson, PhD on 12.17.21

By Clayton R. Johnson, PhD, Laboratory Scientist, Fauske & Associates, LLC

Mettler-Toledo RC1FAI specializes in characterizing, preventing, and mitigating chemical reactivity hazards. Reaction and adiabatic calorimetry are two laboratory techniques FAI relies on to determine the thermal potential and reactivity of chemical systems. Reaction calorimetry (RC) quantifies the heat evolution and heat evolution rate of a chemical process under the desired reaction conditions. Adiabatic calorimetry does not hold the reaction conditions constant and is generally used to explore the undesired runaway reaction which could be caused by a process deviation such as a loss of cooling, overcharging, or heating by external fire. The undesired reaction(s) commonly have their own heats of reaction which may lead to temperature and/or pressure increases that should be evaluated so that the proper safeguards can be implemented to prevent or mitigate unintended consequences.

While FAI is well known for our adiabatic testing capabilities using instruments like the FAI-invented Vent Sizing Package (VSP2) and Advanced Reactive System Screening Tool (ARSST), as well as the Accelerated Rate Calorimeter (ARC), we also offer a suite of RC testing capabilities. RC seeks to quantify the total heat of a desired reaction, heat rate of the reaction, and the heat capacity of the reaction mass, with the goal of supporting the safe scale-up of a chemical process. RC data can be used to calculate key process safety parameters, such as the adiabatic temperature rise caused by the desired reaction, to evaluate the potential severity of the reactive hazard and the instantaneous or peak heat generation rates for determining the necessary cooling requirements at process scale. Additionally, RC data can help determine the gas generation rate of a reaction, size important process equipment such as a scrubber for hazardous off-gas and establish the temperature-dependent kinetics of a reaction. Additionally, the thermochemical RC data can be used to optimize process conditions such as process temperature, addition rate, and reagent, catalyst or solvent selection.

THT and ChemiSens

FAI’s RC lab utilizes the Mettler-Toledo RC1, Thermal Hazards Technology (THT) μRC, and/or ChemiSens CPA202 as determined by the system of interest. Our RC instruments are highly customizable allowing for evaluation of a range of processes. Our array of calorimeter configurations allows for flexible experiment design by which we can vary, measure, or control key parameters such as temperature, pressure, wetted material(s) of construction, baffling, agitation type, stir rate, pH, gas generation, and means of dosing (solids, liquids, and gases). Our ability to precisely control testing conditions allows us to study processes that involve flammables, moisture-sensitive, and air-reactive materials and perform chemical compatibility assessments. Please see the table below to better understand how our suite of reaction calorimeters can be tailored to study your process.

FAI's RC Capabilities

In summary, RC data are used to support chemical process scaleup (e.g., determine the cooling requirements for the plant heat exchangers), which results in improved safety, cost efficiency, or sustainability of the chemical processes. We are happy to discuss your new or legacy processes, confirm safe processing conditions, and evaluate other engineering parameters to comply with the OSHA Process Safety Standard 29 CFR 1910.119 and various National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standards. Remember that both OSHA and NFPA require the use of recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices (RAGAGEP). RC is considered a RAGAGEP technique for the safer batch and semi-batch chemical reactions processing by providing critical quantitative engineering thermal and kinetic data.

For reaction calorimetry inquiries, please contact Clayton Johnson at thermalhazardsgroup@fauske.com.

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Topics: reaction calorimetry, relief system design

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