KINETIC PARAMETER-ESTIMATION FOR THE CAUSTICIZING REACTION USING A DIFFERENTIAL-ALGEBRAIC OPTIMIZATION TECHNIQUE

Causticizing is an important reaction in the kraft pulping process in which white liquor is regenerated from green liquor. In spite of its m ajor significance to the pulp & paper mill, the kinetics of causticizi ng reaction is not yet well understood. A kinetic model for the causti cizing reaction is developed in this study. The model doesn't take int o account the mass transfer considerations as the experiments were don e with analytical grade lime. The pseudo homogeneous kinetic model dev eloped here is a stiff non-linear differential equation. The parameter s involved in the model are solved using Differential Algebraic Optimi zation Technique. A systematic approach for solving the parameter esti mation problem is outlined in this paper. The model predictions were f ound to be within 1% of the observed values.