Safer operating conditions and optimal scaling-up process for cyclohexanone peroxide reaction

• Thermal hazard of cyclohexanone peroxide reaction was measured by experimental techniques.
• Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm was adopted to evaluate kinetic parameters.
• Safer operating conditions at laboratory scale were acquired by BDs and TDs.
• The verified safer operating conditions were used to obtain the optimal scale-up parameters applied in industrial plants.

The cyclohexanone peroxide reaction process, one of the eighteen hazardous chemical processes identified in China, is performed in indirectly cooled semibatch reactors. The peroxide reaction is added to a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and nitric acid, which form heterogeneous liquid–liquid systems. A simple and general procedure for building boundary and temperature diagrams of peroxide process is given here to account for the overall kinetic expressions. Such a procedure has been validated by comparison with experimental data. Thermally safer operating parameters were obtained at laboratory scale, and the scaled-up procedure was performed to give the minimum dosing time in an industrial plant, which is in favor of maximizing industrial reactor productivity. The results are of great significance for governing the peroxide reaction process apart from the thermal runaway region. It also greatly aids in determining optimization on operating parameters in industrial plants.