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Polymer Reaction Engineering, Vol.9, No.1, 1-17, 2001
Using multiplicity to improve reactor performance and product quality in emulsion polymerization in continuous loop reactors
The emulsion copolymerization of vinyl acetate and Veova 10 in a continuous loop reactor was investigated finding that the system presents steady state multiplicity. It is shown how to take advantage of the reactor dynamics to conduct the process in such a way that a pseudo steady state is reached in which high polymerization rates at low temperatures and/or low initiator concentrations are obtained. These conditions allow to achieve high production rate of a high molecular weight polymer which yields high wet scrub resistance. If these conditions were implemented from the beginning of the process, low conversions, and in some cases coagulation, would be obtained.