MATHEMATICAL-MODEL OF A CONTINUOUS INDUSTRIAL HIGH-IMPACT POLYSTYRENEPROCESS

An industrial bulk process for the continuous production of high-impac t polystyrene (HIPS) is mathematically modeled, and the model is valid ated with actual plant data. The steady states of two commercial HIPS grades were investigated Polymer samples were taken along the process to measure monomer conversion, styrene (St) grafting efficiency and fr ee PS molecular weights. The model adequately reproduces the experimen tal measurements, and it also estimates the molecular macrostructure o f the evolving reaction mixture.