What Can Industrial Catalytic Olefin Polymerization Plants Tell Us About Reaction Kinetics? From Production Rate and Residence Time to Catalyst Reaction Performance.

Abstract

The information available in daily plant operation data is not fully exploited by polymer reaction engineers: what do the catalytic olefin polymerization plants tell? In this article, a method is proposed to increase catalyst and process know-how, based on experimentally acquired production rate results, coming from a continuous tandem reactor polymerization process. The polymer reaction engineering methodology is also discussed in detail for connecting the catalyst reaction performance to the expected activity profile and yield for batch operation, together with the residence time distribution effect for continuous operation. The potential of the proposed methodology is highlighted with a theoretical example and the effectiveness of the method is demonstrated with an applied example, accurately estimating deactivation parameter values for two catalysts based on plant information and, validated based on small-scale polymerization experiments.