Simulation of a continuous high-impact polystyrene process

An industrial bulk process for the continuous production of high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) included seven An industrial bulk process for the continuous production of high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) included seven continuous stirred-tank reactors (CSTR) is mathematically modeled and simulated. The results of steady-state model are validated with actual plant data. The good agreements between simulations results and industrial data have been observed.
Using dynamic simulation the time variation of monomer conversion, the molecular weight distributions, styrene concentration, initiator concentration, modifier concentration and inhibitor concentration and un-reacted butadiene repetitive units concentration investigated. The effects of various operating conditions such reactors temperatures on the dynamic properties of reactor output such measure monomer conversion, grafting efficiency, the number and weight-average molecular weights have been investigated. The results show that with increasing temperature, monomer conversion increases and averages molecular weights reduce.