International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

Grafting is the most effective way of modifying and regulating the properties of natural polysaccharides for the production of highly efficient graft copolymers, which have applications as flocculating agents for the treatment of different wastewaters. An experimental investigation connected with the modification of starch by grafting acrylamide with the application of electron beam irradiat ion is performed. In this paper the implementation of different multi-criteria optimization strategies, solving the problem with the choice between several compromise Pareto-optimal solutions are presented and compared for the process of electron beam grafting of corn starch. The compromise Pareto-optimal solutions are obtained by implementation of genetic algorithm and a set of requirements for the desired reference direction (minimum or maximum) and the constraints of the investigated quality characteristics and their variances under production conditions, which ensure the fulfilment of several goals – economic efficiency, assurance of low toxicity and high copolymer efficiency in flocculation process.

Electron beam irradiation has the ability to modify polymer substrates by the process of graft copolymerization in order to synthesize water-soluble copolymers having flocculating properties. The influence of the variation of the process parameters acrylamide/starch (AMD/St) weight ratio, electron beam irradiation dose and dose rate is investigated. Models of the means and variances for the dependencies of the quality characteristics (monomer conversion coefficient, residual monomer concentration and apparent viscosity) from the described process parameters are estimated by implementation of the robust engineering methodology for quality improvement. Multi-criteria optimization involving requirements for economic efficiency, assurance of low toxicity and high copolymer efficiency in flocculation process is also presented.

Experimental investigation of the modification of starch by grafting acrylamide using electron beam irradiation in order to synthesize water-soluble copolymers having flocculation abilities is performed. The influence of the variation of the parameters acrylamide/starch (AMD/St) weight ratio, electron beam irradiation dose and dose rate, as well as the presence or absence of metallic silver nanoparticles is investigated. The characterization of graft copolymers was carried out by monomer conversion coefficient, residual monomer concentration, intrinsic viscosity and Huggins’ constant. Models, describing the dependencies of the quality characteristics (their means and variances) from the process parameters, are estimated by implementation of the robust engineering approach in the case of qualitative and quantitative factors. Multi-criteria optimization involving requirements for economic efficiency, assurance of low toxicity, high copolymer efficiency in flocculation process and good solubility in water is also presented.