In-Line Monitoring of Emulsion Polymerization Reactions Combining Heat Flow and Heat Balance Calorimetry

In-line monitoring of semi-batch vinyl acetate emulsion polymerizations was performed combining heat flow and heat balance calorimetry to re-estimate the overall heat transfer coefficient between the reactor and jacket. The initial UA(RJ) was obtained applying a constant power through an electrical heater to the initial reactor charge. As UA(RJ) changed during the reaction, it was re-estimated combining the mass and energy balances of the jacket and the reactor and minimizing an objective function in terms of T-j_out. Results showed that good in-line estimations of conversion can be performed without requiring the use of experimental conversion data to re-estimate UA(RJ) during the reaction.