Title

Full scale industrial reactor implementation of automatic continuous online monitoring of polymerization reactions (ACOMP)

Conference Dates

May 10-15, 2015

Abstract

The transfer of the ACOMP platform from the laboratory to industrial scale has recently been achieved. In order to be effective in the industrial milieu the transfer has involved a considerable amount of automation, self-sensing systems, fail-safe measures, and remote communication capabilities. Nonetheless the essential ACOMP principle is active, that is, to continuously and automatically withdraw a small stream of reactor liquid, diluting it and conditioning it to the level where accurate dilute solution measurements are continuously made on polymer properties and kinetics of reactions using a combination of spectroscopic and hydrodynamic detectors. Some of the aspects to be discussed include the overall approach, the ability to kinetically monitor overall conversion down to trace quantities of monomer, continuous online monitoring of properties related to polymer molecular weight, and ‘filtrodynamic’ strategies to monitor the onset and evolution of any particulate populations during reactions. An outlook for polymer manufacturing sectors of near- and long-term application, including natural product processing, will be presented, along with a preview of approaches towards complete active feedback control of polymerization reactions.

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