Mixing Effects in Continuous Free‐Radical Solution Copolymerization Tank Reactors: II—Investigation of Micromixing Effects

The effect of micromixing on the dynamic behavior of continuous solution copolymerization tank reactors is evaluated both experimentally and theoretically. For this purpose, copolymerization reactions of styrene and divinylbenzene are carried out in a lab‐scale polymerization system, composed of two...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Macromolecular reaction engineering 2019-10, Vol.13 (5), p.n/a
Main Authors: Oechsler, Bruno F., Poblete, Israel B. S., Melo, Príamo A., Pinto, José C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bulk polymerization
Conversion
Copolymerization
copolymerization reactions
CSTR reactor
Divinylbenzene
IEM model
Method of characteristics
Micromixing
micromixing behavior
Polymerization
Reactors
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Summary:The effect of micromixing on the dynamic behavior of continuous solution copolymerization tank reactors is evaluated both experimentally and theoretically. For this purpose, copolymerization reactions of styrene and divinylbenzene are carried out in a lab‐scale polymerization system, composed of two tank reactors in series, to provide experimental data of conversion and molar masses for analysis of micromixing effects. Besides, a detailed micromixing model, based on a dynamic population balance approach, is developed and solved with the method of characteristics, to investigate the micromixing effects on the dynamic behavior of conversion and molar masses in copolymerization reactions. Particularly, results show for the first time that micromixing effects can be important to explain the dynamic behavior of polymerization reactions performed in bulk, but are not sufficient to explain the whole set of available experimental data, which are much more sensitive to modification of residence time distributions and macromixing. Micromixing effects in continuous solution copolymerization tank reactors are evaluated experimentally and theoretically. A micromixing model, based on a dynamic population balance, is developed to describe the experimental data of conversion and molar masses. Results show that micromixing can be important to explain the dynamic behavior seen experimentally, but are not sufficient to explain the whole set of experimental data.
ISSN:1862-832X
1862-8338
DOI:10.1002/mren.201900018