Effects of the temperature and mixing rate on foaming in a polymerization reaction to produce fatty polyamides in the presence of catalyst

The effects of the mixing rate and temperature on foaming are investigated, and the time minimization for the polyamidation reaction in the presence of catalyst in a semibatch reactor to prevent foaming was performed using the MATLAB program. The process constraints are the rate of temperature increase and rate of production of water. It is found that with an increase in the mixing rate foaming will start at lower temperatures and with a decrease in the mixing rate foaming will only start at high temperatures. For each mixing rate with an increase the temperature, the duration of foaming is shorter because the increase in the rate of foaming ends. Temperature profiles with time for different mixing rates were generated, and it is found that the reaction time decreases with increasing mixing rate. The generated temperature profiles were verified experimentally, and no foaming was observed.