Effect of inorganic salt and organic acid on the thermal runaway of hydrogen peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide with the presence of catalytic metal ions or incompatible organic matters has caused some fire and explosion accidents in recent years. This work further studied the effect of inorganic salt and organic acid on the thermal runaway behaviour of hydrogen peroxide via rapid screening device (RSD), accelerating rate calorimeter (ARC) and a batch reactor. Experimental results revealed that both the metal ions and their corresponding inorganic acid ions have significant influences on the thermal runaway of H₂O₂: the catalytic effect of metal ion followed Fe²⁺ > Fe³⁺ > Cu²⁺, and the synergistic effect of inorganic acid ion followed Cl⁻ > SO₄²⁻. No explosion was detected under RSD and ARC test conditions. In addition, a one-step global reaction kinetic model characterized as adiabatic temperature increase and final exothermic temperature was briefly described to estimate the kinetic parameters of the mixture of H₂O₂ with/without organic acid. The analysis showed that the runaway reaction of H₂O₂ with formic acid or acetic acid is a first order reaction at a low temperature range (<100 °C) and the thermal runaway risk of H₂O₂/HCOOH > H₂O₂/CH₃COOH, along with the decreasing apparent activation energy and pre-exponential factor.