Modelling and simulation of suspension polymerization of vinyl chloride via population balance model

A detailed population balance model is presented for suspension polymerization of vinyl chloride in an isothermal batch reactor perfectly mixed on macrolevel. Coalescence and breakage of monomer droplets, as well as mass exchange of species between the droplets induced by collisions, termed micromixing, are also included into the model forming a complex three-scale system. The resulted population balance equation is solved by coupling the deterministic continuous time computation of polymerization reactions inside the droplets with the random coalescence and breakage events of droplets using Monte Carlo simulation. The results obtained by simulation revealed that aggregation, breakage and micro-mixing of species induced by droplet collisions affect the process significantly.