Estudo da reação de polimerização do cloreto de vinila e simulação do processo

Abstract

Poly vinyl chloride (PVC) is the third polymer in volume sales in the world after polyethylene and polypropylene. It’s production is started with the reaction between cloride, which comes from salt and ethane originated from petroleum. Togheter, they form the vinyl chloride monomer that is transformed in PVC after the polymerization process. Since the polymer can be mixed with a wide range of additives it varies its properties ranging from flexible to rigid. In this work, the software Aspen Plus was used to simulate and reach the best reaction conditions to produce a type of PVC fit for the injection process of pipe fittings used on civil construction. The PVC for this use needs to be rigid with number-average molecular weight ranging from approximately 38.000 g/mol to 45.500 g/mol using the suspension polymerization process in batches. The lowest temperature that guarantied a result in the range required, using the model present inside Aspen, was 77,4°C, with a reactor’s conversion of 18,35% and a global conversion of arond 100%, including the purification process. This resulted in a polymer of number-average molecular weight of 45.483,5 g/mol, and less than 1 ppm of monomer, therefore inside the adequate range.