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Online estimation and control of polymer quality in a copolymerization reactor
Author(s) -
Park MyungJune,
Hur SuMi,
Rhee HyunKu
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.690480511
Subject(s) - copolymer , extended kalman filter , viscometer , isothermal process , materials science , estimator , monomer , kalman filter , polymer , computer science , polymer chemistry , chemical engineering , control theory (sociology) , chemistry , viscosity , thermodynamics , mathematics , engineering , composite material , control (management) , physics , statistics , artificial intelligence
The validity of an online state estimator for a semi‐batch MMA/MA solution copolymerization reactor was established using online densitometer and viscometer. Using the conventional extended Kalman filter (EKF) as the state estimator, the experiment was conducted under both isothermal and nonisothermal conditions for application to the control of copolymer properties. Further analysis was made by using ofline measurement data for the mol fraction of MMA in the remaining monomers and the solid content. The EKF was found to provide a good estimate for the state of the copolymerization system. A model predictive controller was designed and implemented to obtain copolymers with uniform copolymer composition and the desired weight average molecular weight by adopting the feed flow rate of MMA and the reaction temperature as control inputs. The controller was proven effective with a satisfactory performance for the control of polymer properties in the semi‐batch copolymerization reactor.