Fundamental Studies of Polymerization Processes

大约600亿磅/年的合成聚合物 在美国生产，在多种聚合反应中 反应堆 这些反应堆的产物的最终用途 从合成服装到乳胶漆 聚合物是 在间歇、半间歇和连续反应器中制造。 聚合反应工程试图改善聚合反应的性能。 通过工艺设计创新生产聚合物， 控制 三个重要领域包括：（1）需要 了解反应堆的动力学， 释放、高粘度和难以散热 设计有效控制机制的困难;（2） 连续液相和气相工艺的发展， 聚烯烃（聚乙烯，聚丙烯，等，- 商品 聚合物）生产;和（3）开发新工艺， 缩聚聚合物（纤维和工程 例如塑料是通过这种方法生产的）。 PI计划继续进行实验和理论研究 在间歇、半间歇和连续聚合反应器中， 为了发展对化学和物理 现象发生，并利用这种理解： (1)设计改进的反应堆设计， 控制聚合物性能的控制， 困难的动力。 通过定量测定 操作条件和系统参数的范围， 出现振荡和稳定性问题时， 可以开发满足聚合物的程序 产品规格和具有良好的经济性，但 避免那些导致困难的参数组合 动态行为 (2)为反应堆开发新型在线传感器， 聚合物颗粒，其允许更紧密的质量控制， 产品和这些新的在线组合 具有反馈策略的聚合物特性传感器， 提供控制方案，导致安全动态 操作和产品质量的严密控制。 (3)为现有和新兴的核反应堆设计新的反应堆 聚合物产品的种类。

Approximately 60 billion lbs/year of synthetic polymers are produced in the U.S., in a wide variety of polymerization reactors. The ultimate use of the products from these reactors ranges from synthetic clothing to latex paints. Polymers are manufactured in batch, semibatch, and continuous reactors. Polymerization reaction engineering attempts to improve the production of polymers through innovations in process design and control. Three areas of importance include (1) a need to understand the dynamics of the reactors in which large heat release, high viscosity, and difficult heat removal contribute to difficulties in designing effective control mechanisms; (2) the development of continuous liquid and gas phase processes for polyolefin (polyethylene, polypropylene, etc., - commodity polymers) production; and (3) developing new processes for polymers made by polycondensation (fibers and engineering plastics, for example are produced by this method). The PI plans to continue experimental and theoretical research on batch, semibatch, and continuous polymerization reactors in order to develop an understanding of the chemical and physical phenomena occurring, and use this understanding to: (1) Devise improved reactor designs which provide better control control of polymer properties and also minimize difficult dynamics. By quantitatively determining the ranges of operating conditions and system parameters for which oscillations and stability problems arise, design procedures can be developed which satisfy the polymer product specifications and have good economics but which avoid those parameter combinations that lead to difficult dynamic behavior. (2) Develop new types of on-line sensors for the reactor and polymer particles which allow closer quality control of the product and the combination of these new on-line polymer property sensors with feedback strategies to provide control schemes which lead to safe dynamic operation and close control of product quality. (3) Devise new reactor designs for existing and emerging classes of polymer products.