Polymerization carbon-hydrogen rupture

A well known example of an intrinsically unstable process, carried out in an adiabatic stirred reactor, is the high pressure polymerization of ethylene. The main source of instability is the low degree of conversion (0.2 - 0.3). When the temperature surpasses a certain value, the degree of conversion will go up rapidly, leading to a strong temperature increase. This will trigger the complete decomposition of the reaction mixture into carbon and hydrogen. Therefore this type of operation requires careful process control. In addition to this, these reactors are equipped wiUi "rupture disks". 

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