Digital Twin for The Styrene/1,3‐Butadiene Rubber (SBR) Cold Emulsion Copolymerization Process

Development of accurate and robust dynamic models for description of emulsion copolymerization processes used for production of styrene/1,3‐butadiene rubber (SBR), the most widely used elastomer among all the synthetic rubbers produced globally, is fundamental for implementation of monitoring, advanced control, and optimization strategies. There are several studies on dynamic modeling of SBR emulsion copolymerization, but most of them focus on hot conditions or only one semibatch reactor, as in the case of cold conditions. For this reason, the present study focuses on dynamic modeling of SBR cold emulsion copolymerization processes considering a train of 15 continuous stirred tank reactors, as in many real industrial sites. The developed dynamic model is implemented by using the Digital Twin (DT) concept, that involves the online reading of process variables and an adaptive strategy for online tuning of some of the model parameters, being also sensitive to the effect of real‐time changes to the number of reactors in the train, a subject that has been overlooked previously, but which is important at plant site. The practical application of the DT for monitoring a real industrial process illustrates the robustness and accuracy of the developed tool, making it useful for opportune detection of process anomalies and opening the way for future advanced control strategies.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved