Challenges and Opportunities in Continuous Production of Emulsion Polymers: a Review

Profit margin reduction and global competition are pushing latex producers to consider process intensification that relies on the replacement of semicontinuous reactors by continuous ones. The challenges involved and ways in which the challenges can be transformed into opportunities are discussed for: (i) production of branched polymers in CSTRs; (ii) minimization of the grade transition product in the production of a portfolio of pressure sensitive adhesives (PSA) in CSTRs; (iii) synthesis of flocculants by inverse microemulsion polymerization in CSTRs and in tubular and Couette–Taylor reactors; and (iv) production of polyurethane‐acrylic PSAs by miniemulsion polymerization in a tubular reactor.