(647g) Improving Safety and Performance of Polymer Processes by On-Line Applications

Technology leadership is based on two pillars – disruptive innovations leading to new superior processes and incremental process optimization of existing processes to maintain their superiority.

 This lecture will shed light on one important factor for this incremental process optimization, i.e. the application of modern on-line methods to typical batch and semi-batch polymerization processes.

 The basis for process optimization is the knowledge of the state of the process, which can be gained by the application of on-line sensors. Hard sensors like spectroscopic methods give direct access to polymer properties or monomer concentrations, however they are expensive and in many cases need a high effort for maintenance, whereas soft sensors from fusion of simple but robust sensors need a model behind to link information of e.g. temperatures, flows, pressure, torque to process or product information.

 Based on the knowledge of the process state, a model-based safety concept is used to ensure the safety of the process. Such a concept avoids mechanical safety devices.

Once, process safety is assured, non-linear model predictive control technology can be used to optimize process efficiency and product quality, e.g. by feed time reduction in a semi-batch process and controlling the resulting polymer structure.

 Though there are a lot of achievements over time, there still remain problems and challenges which are emphasized.