MTU Hazards Evaluation Laboratory

Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 18:37:28 -0600

MTU Hazards Evaluation Laboratory

This document is the Hazards Laboratory evaluation of the dangers of silicone.

The increased emphasis on process safety has resulted in an increased need for a better understanding of how the physical properties of a material are used to process a "hazard material" safely. Opportunities exist to improve the fundamental nature of these properties.

The initial efforts in the laboratory will be to acquire existing equipment to improve the quality of data and to extend the range of data available.

This equipment will involve properties related to flammability (flashpoint, flammability limits, auto ignition limits) and reactivity (self heat rate, maximum pressure rise). This effort will also look at properties of mixtures. For reactive systems, efforts will be directed towards developing a single thermodynamic function to include both temperature and pressure rate effects. These studies will improve our fundamental understanding of those properties. Future efforts will develop new methods and procedures to improve the characterization of the properties of "hazardous materials."

"The RSST is a adiabatic pseudo bomb calorimeter which measures the rise in the temperature rate generated by the formation of an exotherm. We plan to use equipment purchased by BASF for our use to determine the "potential hazards" associated with the production of polydimethylsiloxane (silicone), which is currently undertaken in The Unit Operations Laboratory.

We keep in touch with industrial concerns through our Safety Advisory Board:

Greg Dickson, The Dow Chemical Company

J. Bruce Powers, The Dow Chemical Company

Jack E. Maddox, Dow Corning Corporation

Ann M. Norberg, Minesota Mining and Manufacturing

Simon Chippett, Union Carbide Corporation

Gerald Boicourt, BASF Corporation

Jack Wehman, BASF Corporation

Kris Chatrathi, Fike Corporation

Tom Hoppe, CIBA-Geigy

Joseph Senecal, Fenwal Safety Systems

Ron Darby, Texas A&M University

Ian Nimmo, Honeywell

Mike Pegg, Technical University of Nova Scotia