The Chemical Engineer's Book Corner

Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards

Author(s): P. G. Urben
Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann

Summary:  An extremely comprehensive list of reactive tendencies for just about any chemical that you may be dealing with.  Want to know what may happen if a particular substance comes in contact with water?  What about how the chemical will react to evelated temperatures?  Is it shock sensitive?   Get the answers in this set of resources.  Included is a complete reference (Volume 1) and a smaller abreviated version grouped by chemical families (Volume 2).   We especially like the CD-ROM included so that you can take the information with you! 

     The book is divided into the following main sections: 
Basics
Kinetic Factors
Adiabatic Systems
Reactivity vs. Composition and Structure
Reaction Mixtures
Protective Measures  

Layout:    Arranged by chemical structure, if you can draw the substance you can find it!  The book is cross-referenced thoroughly to making finding supporting information a breeze.  References are exhaustive so you'll know precisionly where the information is coming from.

From the Book:

Highs:     Highly applicable, easy to use, well referenced.  We also really, really like the inclusion of the CD-ROM...these days, publishers should be including a CD-ROM with any book over 300 pages!

Lows:     It would have been great to see at least one supplier of each substance included in the listing.

Overall:     A solid reference set containing information that you can find quickly.  This reference will come in handy during those HAZOP studies that are paramount to any process study.

Rating:       (out of four stars)

Star Guide: