On‐line inference of polymer properties in an industrial polyethylene reactor

Abstract A major difficulty affecting the control of product quality in industrial polymerization reactors is the lack of suitable on‐line polymer property measurements. In this article a scheme is developed to predict melt index and density in a fluidized‐bed ethylene copolymerization reactor. Theoretically‐based models are derived to predict quality variables from the available on‐line temperature and gas composition measurements. Adjustable …