Premium
Optimization of a batch reactor to produce the elastomeric copolyester prepolymer copoly(ethylene‐polyoxyethylene terephthalate)(CEPT)
Author(s) -
De La CruzGuerra Cornelio,
HernándezRivera Miguel A.,
CruzGómez M. Javier
Publication year - 2001
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.10907
Subject(s) - copolyester , materials science , elastomer , ethylene , isothermal process , work (physics) , prepolymer , composite material , chemical engineering , polymer chemistry , thermodynamics , organic chemistry , chemistry , polyester , physics , polyurethane , engineering , catalysis
A mathematical algorithm that optimizes the reactor to produce the elastomeric copolyester copoly(ethylene‐polyoxyethylene terephthalate), CEPT, is shown in this work. The optimization was carried out this way: First, an initial isothermal guess of temperature profile is made and the differential equtions system, which describes the CEPT production process, is solved, Second, the reaction time is fixed and the objective function is calculated. Third, the adjoint variable equations system is solved and the Hamiltonian's function is calculated. Fourth, a new temperature profile is found by using the control vector iteraction procedure. Finally, steps one to three are repeated until the objective function reaches a minimum value. The results of the optimization establish that the copolytransesterification reactor should be operated initially to high temperature (about 285°C), which should be reduced quickly to near 250°C to purposely diminish the production of by‐products.