Challenges and Opportunities in Continuous Production of Emulsion Polymers: a Review

Abstract

Profit margin reduction and global competition are pushing latex producers to consider process intensification that relies on the replacement of semicontinuous reactors by continuous ones. The challenges involved and ways in which the challenges can be transformed into opportunities are discussed for: (i) production of branched polymers in CSTRs; (ii) minimization of the grade transition product in the production of a portfolio of pressure sensitive adhesives (PSA) in CSTRs; (iii) synthesis of flocculants by inverse microemulsion polymerization in CSTRs and in tubular and Couette-Taylor reactors; and (iv) production of polyurethane-acrylic PSAs by miniemulsion polymerization in a tubular reactor.

Photopolymerization in dispersed systems

“…Controlled addition of monomers in semi-continuous processes is thus mandatory for most polymerizations, not only to master polymer composition, but also to obviate that the resulting accelerating reaction may proceed to the point of loss of control (runaway), leading to drift in polymer architecture, fire or explosion. To overcome this limitation, the development of reactors for continuous processes (tubular and continuous-stirred tank reactors referred to as CSTR) featuring higher heat removal has been investigated [13]. CSTRs in series is the main commercial continuous process implemented today for the large scale production of styrenebutadiene rubber latex.…”

Roadmap for a Smart Factory: A Modular, Intelligent Concept for the Production of Specialty Chemicals

“…Thed escribed market challenges create new demands for production systems in the process industry.A lready-existing concepts prove to be inadequate for the flexible production of increasingly individualized products,e specially within the field of specialty chemicals.Continuous monoproduct plants, which are designed to run at certain operation points and characterized by ahigh cost efficiencywhile at the same time lacking flexibility in throughput, are used for the production of bulk chemicals.T herefore,t he production of small output volumes are conducted in multipurpose plants operating in batch mode [5] as they offer ahigher degree of flexibility than continuously operated monoplants, [6] but have am ore inefficient space-time-yield. [7,8] Shorter production and product life cycles also require as hortening of the developmental time frame of the respective processes as well as af ast design of the necessary process plants. [3] Thus,t he idea of modular production concepts will undoubtedly be pursued further.…”

Low Ppm Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization in (Mini)Emulsion Systems

“…Furthermore, droplets in emulsion act as tiny reactors that limit the amount of reactive monomer necessary to form the particle. The use of water ensures the synthesis of hydrophobic polymers at a low cost [38,72,73].…”