Analysis of the self-heating process of tetrafluoroethylene in a 100-dm3-reactor

There is a lack of data on the self-ignition behaviour of tetrafluoroethylene in industrial sized equipment. Therefore, a facility was designed and constructed for the determination of the Minimum Ignition Temperature of Decomposition of tetrafluoroethylene in a cylindrical reactor with a volume of 100 dm3. Tests with initial pressures of 5 and 10 bar(a) were performed. The Minimum Ignition Temperature of Decomposition of tetrafluoroethylene was observed to decrease with the initial pressure, in agreement with previous experiments with small scale cylindrical vessels. This paper describes the test set-up und gives an overview of the achieved experimental results. In particular the effect of the reactor orientation (vertical or horizontal) is discussed. Furthermore, simplified equations from the Semenov thermal explosion theory are used to attempt extrapolations of previous and current data on the Minimum Ignition Temperature of Decomposition of tetrafluoroethylene to other vessel volumes or initial pressures. Moreover, the experimental data are plotted together against the heated volume to heated surface ratio, which should provide a better extrapolation to other vessel dimensions by taking into account that the efficiency of the dispersion of the heat generated by the reaction is different for two reactors with the same volume but different diameter. Finally, simplified methods for predicting the Minimum Ignition Temperature of Decomposition of tetrafluoroethylene presented previously by the authors are validated for large scale reactors with the experimental data collected within the current work.

► A facility was constructed for analysing the self-ignition behaviour of tetrafluoroethylene (TFE).
► Tests were performed in a 100-dm3-reactor to assess the Minimum Ignition Temperature of Decomposition (MITD) of TFE.
► Initial pressures of 5 and 10 bar(a) were analysed and the effect of the vessel orientation was studied.
► Extrapolations of the MITD of TFE to other vessel volumes or pressures according to the thermal explosion theory are shown.
► Predicting methods of the MITD of TFE are validated for large scale reactors.