Runaway inhibition of styrene polymerization: A simulation study by chaos divergence theory

We attempted to prevent the thermal risk of a runaway reaction of polymerization in a batch reactor and to realize online monitoring and emergency inhibition of the thermal runaway behavior. Styrene thermal initiation of bulk polymerization was studied. A full-size model of the styrene polymerization reactor was constructed by referring to the reactor model of the Mettler Toledo automatic calorimeter, which was combined with the kinetic and thermodynamic models of styrene polymerization. The DIV thermal runaway critical criterion based on chaos divergence theory was used to judge the thermal runaway reaction. The critical point of the runaway reaction was determined and used to inhibit the thermal runaway of styrene polymerization by injecting cooling diluents at the liquid surface. The influence of injection rate (vc=0.5、0.8、1m/s), injection position (in-1、in-2、in-3), and amount of cooling diluents (no add、50 %、70 %、100 %) injected on the thermal runaway inhibition of the reaction was investigated and elucidated. The results indicated that a better inhibiting effect can be obtained by injecting the inhibitors at higher rates near the edge of the paddle blade. Moreover, appropriately increasing the injection amount of the inhibitors can achieve better inhibition of the runaway reaction.