Thermodynamic Modeling and Simulation of Styrene-Butadiene Rubbers (SBR) Solvent Equilibrium Staged Processes

The main purpose of this paper is to describe the necessary steps to model the equilibrium based operations in styrene-butadiene rubbers (SBRs) processing. First of all, we include a brief introduction to polymer-solvent thermodynamics, so later on, we can discuss about the experimental techniques reported in literature for this kind of system, emphasizing those we have used in our work (intrinsic viscosity and inverse gas chromatography). General comments about the thermodynamic models used and experimental data treatment are also included. But, the development of ail accurate simulation model which can predict the final purity of the polymer involves other thermodynamic studies, in order to determine the relative affinities of several additives with both polymer and solvent. Thus, the behavior of several polar modifiers, which are commonly employed in the synthesis process, is also reported. Experimental equilibrium data, evaluation of predictive methods, and simulation results are also reported for these additives, showing that the selection of a suitable thermodynamic model is essential for the reliability of the simulations performed.