CFD Modeling of a Horizontal Plug-Flow Reactor in the Continuous High-Impact Polystyrene Synthesis

I.L. GAMBA; D.A. ESTENOZ; S. MÁRQUEZ DAMIÁN; N.M. NIGRO; M.A. STORTI

Bahía Blanca

Simposio; IX Simposio Argentino de Polímeros; 2011

High-Impact Polystyrene (HIPS) is a composite material produced by polymerizing styrene (St) in the presence of a rubber. Final product is composed by a matrix of free polystyrene (PS) with dispersed rubber particles. In turn, these particles are themselves heterogeneous and contain occluded free PS. The industrial HIPS process involves 4 stages: dissolution, prepolymerization, finishing, and devolatilization. During the prepolymerization the morphology of the particles is developed. In this stage the fluid-dynamic phenomena is vital since it affects the particle size and the final morphology of the material (Estenoz et al., 1998). By integrating each chemical and physical phenomenon, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analyses can help in improving the understanding of the process that leads to rubber particle formation, which is critical in controlling HIPS properties.In this work a CFD model that simulates the continuous horizontal plug-flow pre-polymerization reactor (HPFR) is developed, integrating fluid-dynamics together with kinetics of polymerization, energy and mass balances into the simulation. This leads us to better understand the physico-chemistry inside the reactor. In addition, this tool could be used to determine the appropriate operating conditions to obtain an a priori-specified-characteristics product.