Experimental Study and Simulation of the Polymerization of Methyl Methacrylate at High Temerature in a Continuous Reactor

摘要

The bulk polymerization of MMA at high temperature (120-180~C) ill a continuous pilot-plant reactor has been studied. The polymerization is initiated by diterbutyle peroxide and the chain transfer agent is I-butanethiol. A simulationpro- gram has been developed to predict the steady "Sta:t~ behavior of the reactor. The particular features of the kinetic at above-T 9 temperature are included in the model, especially the thermal initiation of the reation and the attenuation of the autoaccel- eration effect. For the flow and mixing model, the actual vessel cannot be approximated to a single ideal reactor because of its design and of the moderate agitation imposed by the high viscosity of the reacting fluid. A tanks in series model with a recycle stream between tanks is proposed to evaluate the backmixing caused by the special design of the agitator. The parameters of the model are determined with the help of the exper- imental residence time distribution measured on the reactor. The data collected on the actual reactor, i.e., operation, conversion, molecular weight, temperature, are compared to the calculated one. The agreement is satisfactory but the tendencies are slightly underestimated. The program is a tool to evaluate the effect of modifications of the design of the reactor or changes on the operation parameters like input rate, temper- atUre, and agitation on its behavior.