Mixing in Polymer Reactors

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Abstract
Polymer reaction engineering has the general goal of providing a polymerization environment optimum in time, temperature, composition, and shear. Various mixing phenomena play a major role in determining this environment, and the study of polymer reactors is in large part a study of these phenomena. The present work is primarily concerned with the time-composition environment in continuous polymerizers. This leads to a study of residence time distributions and the associated concepts of segregation and maximum mixedness. These concepts may be applied to polymer reactors in much the same way as in simpler chemical reactions. The theory can be applied either as a tool for prediction of performance or as a means for explanation of observed results. In polymer reactors, however, the scope of the prediction or explanation should include details of molecular weight and copolymer composition distributions as well as the overall yield of monomer to polymer.