Multicriteria optimization of production conditions for a new phthalate-free PVC plasticizer

Glycerol tri-isovalerate presents promising performance as new PVC plasticizer. To establish the conditions under which it must be produced on an industrial scale, a model of the process was developed and adjusted using experimental results and parametric identification with Fisherʹs maximum likelihood method. Tests were designed to study the influence of temperature, pressure, molar ratio and catalyst concentration on conversion. Also, a multiobjective optimization of the production conditions, in Paretoʹs sense, was performed using an evolutionary algorithm. Furthermore, a decision aid tool based on two different functions was utilized with the technique MACBETH to select the conditions for scale-up.