Optimal feeding of emulsion polymerization reactor for styrene and butyl acrylate copolymerization

Abstract

This papers studies the problem of dynamic optimization of a fed-batch polymerization reactor for emulsion copolymerization reactor of styrene and butyl acrylate in the presence of a chain transfer agent (CTA). We employ a tendency mathematical model of the process in order to predict the glass transition temperature of produced polymer, the global monomer conversion, the number and weight average molecular weights, the particle size distribution, and the amount of residual monomers. This model is implemented within gPROMS environment for modeling and optimization. A control vector parametrization method is applied as part of the optimization framework. It is desired to compute an optimal profile of feed rate of pre-emulsioned monomers and CTA such that the key quality attributes (both process and product) are met under process and operational constraints.