MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF EMULSION POLYMERIZATION REACTORS: A POPULATION BALANCE APPROACH AND ITS APPLICATIONS.

Research on the modelling, optimization and control of emulsion polymerization (latex) reactors and processes has been expanding rapidly as the chemistry and physics of these systems become better understood, and as the demand for new and improved latex products increases. The objectives are usually to optimize production rates and/or to control product quality variables such as polymer particle size distribution (PSD), particle morphology, copolymer composition, molecular weights (MW's), long chain branching (LCB), crosslinking frequency and gel content. The derivation and development of a mathematical model which is as general as possible and incorporates detailed knowledge from phenomena operative in emulsion polymerization reactors, its testing phase and its application to latex reactor design, simulation, optimization and control are the objectives of this paper and will be described in what follows.