Multivariate statistical process control and property inference applied to low density polyethylene reactors

Low density polyethylene (LDPE) is produced in high pressure tubular reactors. All the fundamental polymer properties are extremely difficult to measure and are usually unavailable. However, many on-line measurements such as the temperature profile down the reactor and the solvent flowrate are available on a frequent basis. This paper investigates, via a simulation study, the use of the multivariate statistical method, PLS (Projection to Latent …