Continuous polymerization, reactor control

G.R. Meira. Forced oscillations in continuous polymerization reactors and molecular weight distribution control. A survey. J. Macromol. Sci.- Rev. Macro-mol. Chem., 20(2) 207-241, 1981. 

Lewin and Bogle (1996) This paper concerns the optimal operation and controllability of a continuous polymerization reactor. 

Penlidis, A., MacGregor, J. F., and Hamielec, A. E. (1985) Continuous emulsion polymerization reactor control, Proc. 1985 American Control Conf., IEEE, Boston. 

Adebekun, A. K. and Schork, F. J. (1989b) Continuous solution polymerization reactor control. 2. Estimation and nonlinear reference control during methylmethacrylate polymerization, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 28, 1846-61. 

At steady state, continuous polymerization reactors produce the polymers of constant properties. In reality, however, the reactor is subject to some external disturbances such as variations in feed composition, feed temperature, and cooling water source temperature. Therefore, accurate feedback control of the reactor is required to maintain consistent product quality and reactor... 

Continuous polymerization processes for PA-6,6 have been reported for over 30 years.5,6,28 Prepolymerization in tubular (Fig. 3.21) or baffled reactors is particularly well suited to continuous polymerization. The polymerization of prepolymers to high-molecular-weight materials in a continuous process is more difficult to control as small differences is molecular weights result in large differences in viscosities. Viscosity differences result in different hold-up times in die reactor and thus nonhomogeneous products. 

Application of Wiener type predictive controller to the continuous solution polymerization reactor... 

In this work, therefore we aim to combine the stochastic observer to input/output prediction model so that it can be robust against the influence of noise. We employ the modified I/O data-based prediction model [3] as a linear part of Wimra" model to design the WMPC and these controllers are applied to a continuous mefihyl methacrylate (MMA) solution polymerization reactor to examine the performance of controller. 

A Simulation Study on the Use of a Dead-Time Compensation Algorithm for Closed-Loop Conversion Control of Continuous Emulsion Polymerization Reactors... 

Several control techniques have been developed to compensate for large dead-times in processes and have recently been reviewed by Gopalratnam, et al. (4). Among the most effective of these techniques and the one which appears to be most readily applicable to continuous emulsion polymerization is the analytical predictor method of dead-time compensation (DTC) originally proposed by Moore ( 5). The analytical predictor has been demonstrated by Doss and Moore (6) for a stirred tank heating system and by Meyer, et al. (7) for distillation column control in the only experimental applications presently in the literature. Implementation of the analytical predictor method to monomer conversion control in a train of continuous emulsion polymerization reactors is the subject of this paper. 

Henderson, L. S. and Cornejo, R. A. (1989). Temperature control of continuous, bulk styrene polymerization reactors and the influence of viscosity an analytical study. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 28, 1644-1653. 

Modeling and Control of Continuous Industrial Polymerization Reactors... 

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