MINIMUM-TIME STRATEGY TO PRODUCE NONUNIFORM EMULSION COPOLYMERS .1. THEORY

A method for calculating the optimal monomer addition policy to produce emulsion copolymers with a given composition profile is presented. The approach allows the calculation of the time evolution of the monomer feed rates that ensure the formation of the desired copolymer composition profile in a minimum process time. The method was applied by simulation to obtain widely different copolymer composition profiles during the emulsion copolymerization of butyl acrylate and styrene. The results were compared with those obtained by means of the power feed method. In these calculations, it was assumed that both the kinetic model and the values of the kinetic parameters are available. The implementation of this approach to real emulsion copolymerization systems in which only a limited kinetic information is available is presented in the second article of this series. (C) 1995 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.