Title: Neural Network Based Modeling for Polycaprolactone Synthesis by Bio-Polymerization of ε-caprolactone
Abstract: xtensive study of ring-opening polymerization ε-caprolactone (ε-CL) using lipase Novozym 435 (immobilized form of lipase B from Candida antarctica) as biocatalyst using ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of ε-caprolactone was carried out at impeller speeds of 250, 500, 750, 1000 rpm and temperature of the reactor of 60°C, 70°C and 80°C.The maximum molecular weight out of all the experiments carried out is 310000 Kilo Daltons (weight average molecular weight, Mw) which was obtained at a temperature of 70°C and 3 hours for an impeller speed of 500 rpm.In order to develop a predictive model a multilayer feed-forward neural network (FANN) trained with an error back-propagation algorithm was incorporated.The results showed that a 3-7-1 for FANN1 with the inclusion of the Reactor impeller speed and 2-6-1 FANN2 arrangement with exclusion of the Reactor impeller gave the best performance.