MWD design in a series of CSTRs with living polymerisation reactions

Abstract

In previous papers of this work methodologies have been established i) to predict the molecular weight distribution (MWD) of living polymerisation processes in various reactor configurations, ii) and - in a reversed calculation process - to design reactor parameters and feed profiles for a single CSTR or a tubular reactor to meet a target MWD. In this paper a model of a series of continuous stirred tank reactors (CSTRs) with various initiator and monomer feed strategies have been used to establish i) the possible MWD shapes with constant feed, ii) the MWD with the lowest possible polydispersity index, and iii) a methodology to design multimodal MWDs with a continuous steady state process. Both the MWD prediction and the design methodologies use a simplified, very fast, direct algorithm, well suited for control purposes.