Reaction runaway has longtime been an issue in chemical industry as it often leads to severe accidents if not controlled and inhibited properly. Herein we have reviewed several key considerations and procedures to prevent such phenomena

including inherently safer reactor design

thermal risk assessment and early warning detection of runaway

and pointed out that the basic principle underlying is necessary heat management and construction of resilient processes. For inherently safer reactor design

important factors such as heat removal

heat capacitance

flow behaviors and explosive behaviors have been investigated. The survey shows that heat exchanger (HEX) reactor and microreactor outperform traditional reactors. Meanwhile

we have looked into the effect of thermal risk ranking and safety operation region determining for thermal risk assessment

and the influence of runaway criteria and construction methods for early detection of reaction runaway as well. It shows that thermal risk assessment plays a key role on process design

and early warning detection system (EWDS) is preferable on prevention of reaction runaway. In the end

perspectives regarding inherently safer designs with the measures discussed above have been provided.