Polyolefin tubular reactor

Spheripol A process for making polypropylene and propylene copolymers. Homopolymerization is conducted in the liquid phase in a loop tubular reactor copolymerization is conducted in the gas phase in a fluidized-bed reactor. The catalyst is treated with a special silane. The product is in the form of beads of up to 5 mm in diameter. Developed by Montecatini, Italy, and first licensed by Himont, United States, and Mitsui Petrochemical Industries, Japan. Ninety-four plants were operating in 2005. Now offered for license by Basell Polyolefins. See also Addipol. 

Polyethylene,LDPE, tubular reactor - Lyondell-Basell Polyolefins and LyondellBasell... 

How many of these polyolefin production plants have been installed since the beginning of this industry One way to develop the answer to this question, which we do not pursue in depth here, is to follow the technology licensors. For example, we know that ICI were active in licensing LDPE and that by 1977, they had 23 licensees, and a total installed capacity of 812,000 tons. However, their founding technology was based on the stirred tank reactor (autoclave), and this could not be scaled up in the same way that tubular reactors, developed by others, could. By 1980, ICI had lost the first producer advantage , had not led the way in technology development, and in 1982, exited the PE business. 

Polyolefins are produced in practically all types of reactor configurations -autoclaves, tubular reactors, loop reactors, fiuidized-bed reactors - making them a prime choice for polymer reaction engineering studies. Polymerization may take place in either gas or liquid phases. For liquid-phase reactors, the monomers can be either liquid (as in the case of propylene and higher a-olefins) or dissolved in an inert diluent. Industrial catalysts for olefin polymerization are mainly heterogeneous, but some processes also use soluble catalysts. There are many different types of catalysts for olefin polymerization and they can be used to synthesize polymer chains with very different microstructures and properties. 

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