Reachability analysis of particle size distribution in semibatch emulsion polymerization

Emulsion polymerization is an economically important method of producing a number of polymer products, where particle size distribution (PSD) is an essential property of the latex produced. A programming-based approach has been proposed for reachability analysis of PSD for a general particulate system described by population balance models, along with application to a semibatch styrene homopolymerization system. The reachable region is defined for both the nominal and perturbed cases, with final PSDs characterized as multi-Gaussian distributions. The evolution of the reachable region in the case of mid-course correction shows the best in-batch control performance achievable given limited PSD measurements.