A mathematical model for determining the best process conditions for average Molecular weight and melt flow index of polypropylene

Abstract

The present work describes a mathematical model based on a population balance approach for determining the effect of the reaction temperature and hydrogen amount on the vital final product properties including average molecular weight and polydispersity index and flow index of polypropylene and also the profile rate of the polymerization. The aim of this study was to find the best operating condition through a model which is validated by the experimental data. The software program was coded in MATLAB/SIMULINK. The model profile rates compared with the experimental results to show the accuracy of the model. In this study, it was concluded that increasing the reaction temperature until a certain limit is useful and improve some indices of the final product and after that rising the reaction temperature has a harmful effect on the indices. Exactly the same issue is true in the case of increasing the amount of hydrogen.

Investigating the effect of co-catalyst on the final product properties and the yield of ziegler–natta catalyst in propylene polymerization in optimum temperature reaction in absence of hydrogen via mathematical model

“…(8) only validated in the absence of hydrogen with regarding this study circumstance, it would be suitable. In the presence of hydrogen, in the previous work [13], Eq. (8) is able to predict the melt flow index with a correlation coefficient (R 2 ) of 0.98.…”

“…In this study, the assumptions for modeling are: (1) It was supposed that propylene polymerization was carried out in the amorphous phase (2) the amorphous phase concentrations during polypropylene polymerization were at the thermodynamic equilibrium condition that obeys the one from Sanchez and Lacombe equation (SLE) [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. 2It was assumed that γ1 = γ2 = ••• = γNC, where γ is equilibrium constant and NC are several solvents in slurry phase components [2].…”

“…To reply to the above research questions, to be concluded a validated mathematical model could be able to cover them properly. In earlier studies attempts were made to establish and propose a validated mathematical model which to be able to show the performance of the polymerization in macro or overall viewpoints [3,[10][11][12][13][14]. In previous work [12], it was scientifically reasoned in detailed how the model will be validated properly with acceptable errors and also discussed and concluded that the selected modeling method, i.e.…”

“…Varshouee et al performed a computational study by proposing a new validated model based on kinetics study and found that hydrogen has directly impact on final properties so that increasing hydrogen amount in the recipe of the polymerization causes to decreasing of Average Molecular Weights; and also leads to higher activated sites percent on the surface catalyst [3,10]. They conducted a comprehensive study on Final Product Properties and Kinetics Studies of the polymerization [11][12][13][14] and compared the outputs coming from their model with the experimental results to prove their model and explained the reasons that justify their model was validated [12], then they found that 70 °C is the optimum temperature in their study [3].…”

A Mathematical Model for Investigating the Effect of Reaction Temperature and Hydrogen Amount on the Catalyst Yield during Propylene Polymerization

“…3,13 The authors also found the best process conditions regarding the deactivation constant, 13,14 average molecular weight and melt flow index of the used catalyst. 15 They then decided to develop their model in order to cover the aforementioned gaps by proposing a validated mathematical model. This paper is a result of their decision.…”