An optimization study on the pyrolysis of polystyrene in a batch reactor |
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Authors: | Hyun-Seob Song Jae Chun Hyun |
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Affiliation: | (1) Department of Chemical Engineering, Korea University, 136-701 Seoul, Korea |
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Abstract: | The pyrolysis process of polystyrene (PS) has been investigated to find optimal temperature profiles which minimize the reaction
time and the reaction energy required for a given conversion in a batch reactor. Assuming that the fragmentation of PS in
pyrolysis is described by the mechanism of random and/or specific degradations, we used a continuous kinetic model for solving
three moment equations to determine the transient change of molecular weight distributions (MWD) of the polymers. We then
converted this independent-variable minimization problem using a coordinate transformation to a dependent-variable minimization
problem that yields the optimal temperature profiles as its solution. The optimization results obtained in this study encompass
the cases of different objective functions which cover minimum reaction time, minimum energy consumed, or any combination
of these. It has turned out that maintaining the reaction temperature constant at an optimal level is the best solution in
this optimization problem. An economic cost function also has been introduced as the third objective function to be minimized
in addition to the reaction time and the reaction energy. This new function can serve as a convenient measure to judge the
performance of the pyrolysis process minimizing the involved cost. |
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Keywords: | Batch Reactor Cost Minimization Coordinate Transformation Objective Functions Optimization Polymer Pyrolysis Polystyrene (PS) |
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