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Polymerization of styrene in a continuous filled tubular reactor
Author(s) -
Yoon Won Jung,
Choi Kyu Yong
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.10385
Subject(s) - materials science , residence time distribution , plug flow reactor model , dispersion (optics) , plug flow , mixing (physics) , continuous stirred tank reactor , polymerization , styrene , volume fraction , monomer , steady state (chemistry) , thermodynamics , chemical engineering , flow (mathematics) , composite material , mechanics , copolymer , polymer , chemistry , physics , optics , quantum mechanics , engineering
Free radical solution polymerization of styrene has been studied using a binary mixture of symmetrical bifunctional initiators in a filled tubular reactor packed with static mixers. Owing to intensive radial mixing induced by the static mixers, a near plug flow pattern was obtained in the reactor with some axial dispersion effect. The axial mass dispersion coefficient was determined from the residence time distribution experiment and a dynamic axial dispersion model has been developed and solved to investigate steady state and transient behavior of the filled tubular reactor. With a solvent volume fraction of 0.3, the monomer conversion up to 70% was obtained without fouling problems in the temperature range 90 to 120°C. The experimental filled tubular reactor was operated under various reaction conditions and a reasonably good agreement between the model and the experimental data was obtained without using any adjustable parameters.