PROCESS AND APPARATUS TO DETERMINE THE DEGREE OF SEPARATION OF TWO SOLUTION STREAMS

摘要

The present invention is a method and apparatus for determining the degree of separation (DOS) of a polymer solution into a polymer-rich stream and a solvent-rich stream, the method comprising: Adding a polymer solution comprising a polymer, a solvent and an anti-solvent to a liquid-liquid separation vessel; Separating the polymer solution into a polymer-rich stream and a solvent-rich stream; Removing at least a portion of the polymer-rich stream from at least one outlet P on the vessel and measuring the actual solution density of the polymer-rich stream using at least one flow meter; Removing at least a portion of the solvent-rich stream from at least one other outlet S on the vessel, and measuring the actual density of the solvent-rich stream using at least one flow meter, Here, the degree of separation (DOS) provides a method determined by the following equation (Equation 1): DOS = [actual solution density (polymer-rich stream)-actual solution density (solvent-rich stream)] / [theoretical solution density (polymer-rich stream)-theoretical solution density (solvent-rich stream)] (Equation 1).