Online Monitoring of Emulsion Polymerisations Using Raman Spectroscopy

Many polymer products are manufactured using batch and semi-batch reactors. Typically the process parameters are fixed and are not varied during the reaction. Unexpected changes in operating conditions can lead to variations in polymer structure and purity, resulting in significant losses due to off-spec materials. An approach addressing the complex issues of real-time process control of large-scale emulsion polymerisation processes is to use advanced models and on-line sensors. A specific objective is to implement a model-based predictive control based on Raman spectroscopy.