Optimal Reaction Conditions for Minimization of Energy and Byproducts in a Poly(ethylene terephthalate) Process

  • Ha, Kyoung-Su (School of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Processes Seoul National University) ;
  • Rhee, Hyun-Ku (School of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Processes Seoul National University)
  • Published : 1999.10.01

Abstract

The optimal reaction conditions are determined for a PET process, which consists of transesteriflcation, prepolymerization and polycondensation reactors in series. Based on the simulation results of the reactor system, we scrutinize the cause and effect between the reaction conditions and the final properties of the polymer product. We then select the process variables with significant influence on the properties of polymer as control variables and calculate the optimal reaction conditions by iterative dynamic programming (IDP) algorithm with constraints. A new reaction scheme incorporating reactions for by-products as well as three main reactions is considered in the constrained IDP method.

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