Process Scale-Up Hazard Analysis and Product Yield Investigation of Cyclohexanol Oxidation to Cyclohexanone Using RC1 Calorimetry

For industrial reactions, cooling requirements must be carefully determined to prevent thermal runaway, while product yields are also important for economic analysis. In this work, the suitable operating regions for synthesis of cyclohexanone from cyclohexanol through minimizing the heat release and maximizing product yields are determined using response surface method-ology. These are based on the parameters of operating temperature, peroxide to reactant ratio, and number of peroxide injections. The reaction temperature was found to play the greatest role in both the quantity of heat released and cyclohexanone yield for each set of experiments, with the greatest heat release of 9.23 kJ/kg and highest cyclohexanone yield of 0.81 occurring at the highest temperature investigated (60 degrees C). As a result, response surface methodology has been demonstrated as an effective method for identifying parameter combination effects on heat release and reaction yields for exothermic reactions.