Experimental study on the thermal runaway of hydrogen peroxide with in-/organic impurities by a batch reactor

Hydrogen peroxide, as a very versatile reagent for many industrial processes, has caused many accidents in recent years. Therefore, understanding the thermal hazards of hydrogen peroxide with or without impurities is essential for the prevention of fire and explosion accidents. In this work, batch reactor tests were conducted to study the thermal runaway behavior of hydrogen peroxide under the contaminations of Fe³⁺ ion, formic/acetic acid and ethanol/acetone. Experimental results revealed that the thermal runaway risk of H₂O₂ increased significantly with increasing initial temperature and Fe³⁺ ion concentration. Comparatively, the potential risk of organic impurities on the thermal stability of hydrogen peroxide was found to be much larger, because several violent explosions were measured resulting from a series of rapid and complicated decomposition reactions. The explosion severity of H₂O₂ with organic matters followed acetone > ethanol > formic acid > acetic acid. In addition, a modified runaway scenario characterized as adiabatic temperature increase and time to maximum rate was briefly described to theoretically evaluate the thermal risk of H₂O₂ decomposition. This scenario was found to be valid to estimate thermal runaway hazards. These results improve our understanding of thermal runaway behavior and explosion risk of H₂O₂ with incompatible impurities.