NONLINEAR EFFECTS ON YIELD AND COLOR FOR AN INTERMEDIATE IN AN INDUSTRIAL-PROCESS

Intermediate Product E is a commodity chemical made from the reaction of Monomer C with Monomer D in the presence of a catalyst. Fluctuation s in the yield and color of Product E were observed at a production pl ant. A screening, fractional factorial, experimental design was used t o initially identify which process parameters were affecting the yield and color of Intermediate Product E. Of the six process parameters in vestigated, namely, temperature, reaction rime, catalyst concentration , reactant concentrations, water concentration and stoichiometry, only three of the factors were found to have a statistically significant e ffect on the color and yield. These three factors were further evaluat ed with a face-centered, factorial design which revealed the significa nt nonlinearity effects and allowed for the modelling of a response su rface. The complexity of this process might never have been discovered without the aid of the structured and powerful approach of statistica lly designed experimentation. The design steps, the analysis, and the conclusions and recommendations leading to subsequent experimentation are discussed in this paper. (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.