Basf Se Corporation

John Scott Barratt

Oliver Soetje

Gabriela Eugenia Fonseca Zepeda

Shankara Narayanan Keelapandal Ramamoorthy

Pascal Hesse

Robert Haschick

Aleksandra Jelicic

Bjoern Langlotz

Sandra Jeck

Faissal-Ali El-Toufaili

Dennis Loesch

Björn Langlotz

Dirk Meckelnburg

Markus Ostermayr

Gareth Ian Naylor

Hazel Sprafke

Bernd Schube

Jelan Kuhn

Mark Lebkuecher

Tobias Bringmann

Marcel Lievre

Florian Rainau

Mark Lebkucher

Mark LEBKÜCHER

A process for producing an aqueous polymer solution, including: (a) providing a hydrated polymer that has been prepared by aqueous solution polymerisation of ethylenically unsaturated monomers, which hydrated polymer contains at least 10% by weight active polymer; (b) cutting the hydrated polymer by subjecting the hydrated polymer to at least one cutting stage containing at least one stream of aqueous liquid at a pressure of at least 150 bar to reduce the size of the hydrated polymer; and (c) dissolving the hydrated polymer in an aqueous liquid so as to obtain an aqueous polymer solution. An apparatus for producing an aqueous polymer solution.

Process and apparatus for producing an aqueous polymer solution

A reverse-phase suspension polymerisation process for the manufacture of polymer beads comprising forming aqueous monomer beads of an aqueous solution comprising water-soluble ethylenically unsaturated monomer or monomer blend and polymerising the monomer or monomer blend to form polymer beads while suspended in a non-aqueous liquid, recovering polymer beads, and then cleaning the non-aqueous liquid in which the process comprises providing the non-aqueous liquid in a vessel (), forming a suspension of monomer beads from the aqueous monomer or monomer blend in the non-aqueous liquid, initiating polymerisation to form polymerising beads, removing a suspension of the polymer beads in non-aqueous liquid from the vessel and recovering, water soluble or water swellable polymer beads from the suspension, in which the non-aqueous liquid contains impurities which comprise particles, and then transferring the non-aqueous liquid from the suspension to a cleaning stage, in which the cleaning stage provides a cleaned non-aqueous liquid suitable for use in a reverse-phase suspension polymerisation process, which cleaning stage comprises removing particles from the non-aqueous liquid in at least one filtration step. The invention also relates to the apparatus suitable for carrying out a reverse-phase suspension polymerisation and polymer beads obtainable by the process or employing the apparatus. The invention further relates to a cleaned non-aqueous liquid obtainable by the process.

Reverse-phase polymerisation process

A reverse-phase suspension polymerization process for the manufacture of polymer beads comprising forming aqueous monomer beads comprising an aqueous solution of water-soluble ethylenically unsaturated monomer or monomer blend and polymerizing the monomer or monomer blend, to form polymer beads while suspended in a non-aqueous liquid, and recovering polymer beads, in which the process comprises providing in a vessel () a volume () of non-aqueous liquid wherein the volume of non-aqueous liquid extends between at least one polymer bead discharge point () and at least one monomer feed point (), feeding the aqueous monomer or monomer blend through orifices () into, or onto, the non-aqueous liquid to form aqueous monomer beads, allowing the aqueous monomer beads to flow towards the polymer bead discharge point initiating polymerization of the aqueous monomer beads to form polymerizing beads, wherein the polymerizing beads form polymer beads when they reach the polymer bead discharge point, removing a suspension of the polymer beads in non-aqueous liquid from the vessel at the polymer bead discharge point and recovering, water soluble or water swellable polymer beads from the suspension, in which the aqueous monomer or monomer blend and/or the orifices is/are vibrated such that the frequency multiplied by the weight average droplet diameter is between 150 and 800 mm/s. The invention also relates to the apparatus suitable for carrying out a reverse-phase suspension polymerization and polymer beads obtainable by the process or employing the apparatus. Furthermore, the invention also relates to polymer beads having a weight mean particle size in the range of 0.05 to 5 mm which are held in a container in an amount of at least 300 kg having a standard deviation of particle size less than 20%. In addition, the invention also provides polymer beads having a weight mean particle size in the range 0.05 to 5 mm having a standard deviation of particle size less than 20% and having an amount of residual acrylamide of less than 500 ppm.

Reverse-phase polymerization process

A reverse-phase suspension polymerization process for the manufacture of polymer beads comprising forming aqueous monomer beads comprising an aqueous solution of water-soluble ethylenically unsaturated monomer or monomer blend and polymerizing the monomer or monomer blend to form polymer beads while suspended in a non-aqueous liquid, and recovering polymer beads, in which the process comprises, providing in a vessel () a volume () of non-aqueous liquid wherein the volume of non-aqueous liquid extends between at least one polymer bead discharge point () and at least one monomer feed point (), feeding the aqueous monomer or monomer blend through orifices () into, or onto, the non-aqueous liquid to form aqueous monomer beads, allowing the aqueous monomer beads to flow towards the polymer bead discharge point subjecting the aqueous monomer beads to polymerization conditions to initiate polymerization to form polymerizing beads, wherein the polymerizing beads have formed polymer beads when they reach the polymer bead discharge point, removing a suspension of the polymer beads in non-aqueous liquid from the vessel at the polymer bead discharge point and recovering water soluble or water swellable polymer beads from the suspension. The invention also relates to the apparatus suitable for carrying out a reverse-phase suspension polymerization and polymer beads obtainable by the process or employing the apparatus.

A process for preparation of a polymer product comprising the steps of i) feeding an aqueous mixture comprising a monoethylenically unsaturated monomer or a mixture of monoethylenically unsaturated monomers into a first reactor device () through at least one inlet; ii) partially polymerizing the monomer or monomers and transferring the polymerizing monomer or mixture of monomers from the inlet to an outlet () of the first reactor device () to provide a partially polymerized product; iii) flowing the partially polymerized product out of the outlet (), in which no more than 60% of the monomer or mixture of monomers has been polymerized in the partially polymerized product as it exits the outlet () of first reactor device (), and transferring it to a further reactor device (), in which the further reactor device () has an inlet and an outlet ();iv) continuing the polymerization in the further reactor device () and removing the polymer product from the outlet () of the further reactor device (),characterized in that the first reactor device () comprises a positive displacement pump.

Process for producing polymers

A process for preparation of a polymer product comprising the steps of i) feeding an aqueous mixture comprising a monoethylenically unsaturated monomer or a mixture of monoethylenically unsaturated monomers into a first reactor device () through at least one inlet; ii) partially polymerising the monomer or monomers and transferring the polymerising monomer or mixture of monomers from the inlet to an outlet () of the first reactor device () to provide a partially polymerised product; iii) flowing the partially polymerised product out of the outlet (), in which no more than 60% of the monomer or mixture of monomers has been polymerised in the partially polymerised product as it exits the outlet () of first reactor device (), and transferring it to a further reactor device (), in which the further reactor device () has an inlet and an outlet (); iv) continuing the polymerisation in the further reactor device () and removing the polymer product from the outlet () of the further reactor device (), characterised in that the first reactor device () comprises a positive displacement pump.

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Mirfield, United Kingdom

John Scott Barratt