Reaction Calorimetry in the Production of Water Base Resins by Emulsion Polymerization Process

Nowadays production of water- base resins by emulsion polymerization method is more interested because of the importance of environmental considerations. Reaction calorimetry is a powerful means for the monitoring, process control and research for thereactions kinetic. Calorimetry is able to estimate the heat of reaction and conversion using a few on-line information from the process (e.g. temperature data). Finding a useful mathematical model of process and accurate identification of its parameters isan important issue in this technique to achieve the accurate robust results. Since this models have various and complicated terms, it is important to specify the importance of each term in order to reach the simple model that had an acceptable performance. In this work, calorimetry and its applications are introduced at first, and then a reaction calorimetric model is produced for laboratory reactor of polymerization based on energy balance. Finally, this model is applied in production of poly butyl acrylate in an emulsion polymerization reactor and model accuracy is verified by the experimental data. J. Color Sci. Tech. 2(2009), 199-212.© Institute for Colorants, Paint and Coatings.