Mischarging hazards in batch chemical reactions - issue 256

In batch chemical reactions, mischarging scenarios are a common potential reaction hazard. From a UK study by Barton and Nolan1 21% of incidents related to overheating and thermal runaway were the resulting of mischarging. Mischarging can involve over or under charging solid or liquid reagents, undercharging solvent, adding the wrong reagent, omitting a reagent completely or having the wrong order of addition. In particular, as solids additions are often manually based there is a higher human error element to these events. This paper covers a number of short case studies that have resulted in incidents or near misses.