Industrial Aspects of Polyolefin Production

During the last five decades, industrial production of polyolefin materials has experienced strong increases in production volumes as well as changes in production procedures. Here we give an overview of the situation in 2005 (Boxes 1 and 2). 

The most important monomers for the production of polyolefins, in terms of industrial capacity, are ethylene, propylene and butene, followed by isobutene and 4-methyl-1-pentene. Higher a-olefins, such as 1-hexene, and cyclic monomers, such as norbornene, are used together with the monomers mentioned above, to produce copolymer materials. Another monomer with wide application in the polymer industry is styrene. The main sources presently used and conceivably usable for olefin monomer production are petroleum (see also Chapters 1 and 3), natural gas (largely methane plus some ethane, etc.), coal (a composite of polymerized and cross-linked hydrocarbons containing many impurities), biomass (organic wastes from plants or animals), and vegetable oils (see Chapter 3). 

Equistar Formosa Plastics Chevron Phillips Borealis Total Fina Sable Sinopec Innovene BP Exxon Mobil Dow Basell 

Almost all current large-scale polymerization plants for catalytic polyethylene and polypropylene production are suited only for the use of solid-state 

Discussion Point DPI At present the production of polyolefin materials is based almost exclusively on petroleum. However further increases in crude-oil prices might make other potential sources competitive. Identify three alternative olefin sources, formulate the essential chemical reactions necessary for each production process and try to assess advantages, disadvantages and relative likelihoods of industrial implementation for such processes. 

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