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Design and Simulation of a New Reactor for the Production of High‐Viscosity Polymer Melts

2011; Wiley; Volume: 302; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/masy.201000070

1521-3900

Thomas Rieckmann, Fabian Frei, Susanne Völker,

Polymer Science and PVC

Abstract Summary: Innovative reactor internals consisting of a number of vertically stacked perforated plates have been proposed to increase mass transfer rates of volatiles from highly viscous polymer melts. A mathematical model comprising mass and enthalpy balances for the polycondensation of polyamide 6 has been used to evaluate the new reactor design. According to the simulation, the alternating arrangement of devolatilization and residence zones leads to an effective removal of reaction water from the polymer melt. Compared to the VK‐tube reactor, which is most commonly used to produce high quality PA‐6, the new reactor design produces high quality polymer with a high degree of polymerization within a considerably shorter residence time. The application of the proposed reactor internals is not limited to PA‐6 production, since the removal of volatiles is of the same major importance during all reversible polycondensation reactions, e.g. the production of PET.