Dynamic Modeling of Modified Styrene-Acrylonitrile Process

Abstract

Dynamic model for the commercial modified styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN) polymerization process is developed using the custom modeler within Aspen Dynamics (R). Modified SAN is one of the most widely used thermoplastics in commercial products. In the commercial modified SAN process, the polymerization reaction takes place under high temperature. However, most of the studies of modified SAN process in the past have been conducted under low temperature. Thus, it is difficult to predict the properties, such as weight-average molecular weight, number-average molecular weight, and polydispersity index, of polymer with the models studied in the past. We develop a dynamic simulation model considering segment-based approach, group contribution method, and first principles such as thermodynamic equations and reaction kinetics. Polymer properties are calculated from method of moments, and the model is validated by comparing the properties of simulation result with measured data from plant experiments. Our model gives better performances than the models developed in the past, which are built under different process conditions from the process of interest. Copyright (c) 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)