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A novel approach for the kinetic and mechanistic modeling of acid‐catalyzed degradation of polymers
Author(s) -
Lin Y.H.,
Yang M.H.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
asia‐pacific journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.348
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1932-2143
pISSN - 1932-2135
DOI - 10.1002/apj.196
Subject(s) - catalysis , coke , chemistry , polymer , polypropylene , degradation (telecommunications) , polymer degradation , cracking , organic chemistry , chemical engineering , biochemical engineering , computer science , telecommunications , engineering
A new approach is presented that combines kinetic and mechanistic considerations which take into account chemical reactions and catalyst deactivation in the modeling of the catalytic degradation of polymers. Though acid‐catalyzed hydrocarbon cracking reactions involve a large number of compounds, reactions and catalyst deactivation and are very complex, the model gives a good representation of experimental results from the degradation of polypropylene over fluidized acidic catalysts. This model provides the benefits of product selectivity for the chemical composition, such as alkanes, alkenes, aromatics and coke, in relation to the effect of structurally different polymer feeds, and the performance of the catalyst used. It is an improvement of the currently available empirical ‘lumping’ techniques which usually are severely restricted in terms of product definitions. Copyright © 2009 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.