ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the important aspects of polymerization catalysis and process modeling are discussed for a few selected polymerization processes: transition metal-catalyzed olefin polymerization and free-radical polymerization with complex initiator systems. In the following, a modeling of free-radical polymerization with unsymmetrical bifunctional initiators is discussed to illustrate a molecular species modeling technique and some interesting reaction kinetics. One approach to model the free-radical polymerization process initiated by the bifunctional initiator is to employ a molecular species modeling approach where various polymeric species are defined according to the type of chain end unit. Mixed monofunctional initiators are often used in industrial free-radical polymerization processes. In transition metal-catalyzed olefin polymerization processees, it is crucial to understand not only the catalytic reaction mechanisms and kinetics but complex physical transport phenomena that affect the reaction rate and resulting polymer properties. In contrast to a plethora of literature on polymerization catalysis, there is a dearth of literature on the modeling of industrial olefin polymerization reactors.
