Hot Spot Induced Thermal Runaway Map for Polymerization Reactors

Abstract

Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) reactors have the potential for rupture because of thermal runaway from auto-accelerating chemistry. Pockets of unmixed, highly reactive, LDPE constituents, called hot spots, are often generated by conditions within the reactor and are the main source of thermal runaway. Because of this, there is a need to define thresholds of hot spot conditions that produce runaway. Computational Fluid Dynamics is used to study an isolated LDPE sphere with varying initial temperature, initial catalyst concentration, and volume to determine which combinations promote thermal runaway. It is found that increasing both initial temperature and initial catalyst concentration increased thermal runaway likelihood, while, counter-intuitively, hot spot volume has no effect. An LDPE runaway map is provided to quantify the combinations that result in safe reactor operation. This allows manufacturers to make more informed control actions and to determine safe reactor conditions based on local mixture composition and temperature alone.