Ineos Manufacturing Belgium Nv

Ineos Europe Ag

Ineos Manufacturing Belgium

Marc Parisel

Brent R Walworth

Daniel Marissal

Benoit Koch

Andre Frederich

Tubular reactor for use in polymerization reactions having a design pressure Pof 40-65 barg. The reactor includes a tube with a wall, and at least a portion of the tube is oriented vertically, with at least part of the vertical portion being surrounded by a concentric jacket for the passage of cooling fluid. The design pressure in barg of the jacket Pis less than 0.0018&#xb7;P.

Polymerisation reactor

Process for producing a polymer product in a slurry polymerization process, which slurry polymerization process includes a slurry heater for heating a stream of polymer product slurry withdrawn from a slurry reactor. The process includes reconfiguring the slurry heater from an initial slurry heater configuration to a subsequent slurry heater configuration and further where the slurry heater is reconfigured to form a subsequent slurry heater having a different total length and/or a different average internal diameter than the initial slurry heater.

Apparatus

Process for heating a polymer-containing stream being transferred from a polymerization reactor to a separation zone or device, by passing the stream through at least two heaters operating in parallel, each heater having at least one transfer line for the stream and a heater for heating the transfer line. The average particle of the polymer is below 3 mm, the temperature of the polymer-containing stream at the outlet of all heaters is maintained above the dew point of the stream, and no heater has a volumetric flowrate of polymer-containing stream more than three times that of any other heater.

Polymer stream transfer

Process for heating a polymer-containing stream being transferred from a polymerization reactor to a separation zone or device, by passing the stream through a heater having at least one transfer line for the stream and a heater for heating the transfer line. The average particle size of the solid polymer is less than 3mm, the mass flowrate of the polymer-containing stream exiting the heater is no more than 15% greater than the mass flowrate exiting the reactor, the average velocity of the polymer-containing stream either at a point 80% along the length of the heated part of the transfer line measured from the transfer line inlet, or at the transfer line outlet, is at least 6 m/s, and the pressure drop across the transfer line per unit length is between 0.0125 bar/m and 0.1 bar/m.

Process for removing heat from at least two reactors forming at least part of a polymerization reactor system for a multimodal polymerization in which the reactors are linked in series and all produce at least one component of the same polymer. The process includes cooling a stream of fluid in one or more heat exchangers and passing part of it to the cooling system of a first reactor and part of it to the cooling system of a second reactor, so as to remove the heat from said reactors, and passing back through the heat exchangers a return flow having a portion of the combined exit flows of the cooling fluids used to remove the heat from each of the reactors. The heat exchangers provide at least 90% of the cooling requirement for the reactors, and a portion of the combined exit flows from the reactors bypasses at least one of the heat exchangers and is passed directly to the cooling system of one or more of the reactors. The cooling circuit is powered by no more than one pump at any one time.

Reactor cooling system

Process for producing a multimodal polyethylene in at least two loop reactors connected in series. In the process 20-80 wt % of a high molecular weight (HMW) polymer is made in suspension in a first reactor and 20-80 wt % of a low molecular weight (LMW) polymer is made in suspension in a second reactor, one polymer being made in the presence of the other in either order. The ratio of the average activity in the LMW reactor to the average activity in the HMW reactor is from 0.25 and 1.5, where average activity in each reactor is defined as the rate of polyethylene produced in the reactor (kgPE/hr)/[ethylene concentration in the reactor (mol %)&#xd7;residence time in the reactor (hours)&#xd7;feed rate of catalyst into the reactor (g/hr)], residence time being defined as the mass of the polymer in the reactor (kg)/the output rate of polymer from the reactor (kg/hr), and the volumes of the two reactors differ by less than 10%.

Slurry phase polymerisation process

Process for producing a multimodal polyethylene in at least two reactors connected in series, in which 20-80 wt % of a first polymer is made in suspension in a first reactor and 80-20 wt % of a second polymer is made in suspension in a second reactor in the presence of the first polymer, and a stream or slurry containing the resulting polymer is withdrawn from the second reactor and transferred to a flash tank operating at a pressure and temperature such that at least 50 mol % of the liquid component of the slurry, or the non-polymer component of the stream entering the flash tank, is withdrawn from the flash tank as a vapour, wherein the concentration in the stream or slurry entering the flash tank of components having a molecular weight below 50 g/mol, C(mol %), satisfies the equation C&#x3c;7+0.07(40&#x2212;T)+4.4(P&#x2212;0.8)&#x2212;7(C/C) where Tand Pare respectively the temperature (in &#xb0; C.) and pressure (MPa g) at the location where the vapour withdrawn from the flash tank is condensed, and Cand Care the molar concentrations in the flash tank of hydrogen and ethylene respectively.

Process for producing a multimodal polyethylene in at least two reactors connected in series, in which 20-80 wt % of a high molecular weight (HMW) polymer is made in suspension in a first reactor and 20-80 wt % of a low molecular weight (LMW) polymer is made in suspension in a second reactor. The ratio of the average activity in the LMW reactor to the average activity in the HMW reactor is from 0.25 and 1.5, where average activity in each reactor is defined as the rate of polyethylene produced in the reactor (kgPE/hr)/[ethylene concentration in the reactor (mol %)&#xd7;residence time in the reactor (hours)&#xd7;feed rate of catalyst into the reactor (g/hr)], residence time being defined as the mass of the polymer in the reactor (kg)/the output rate of polymer from the reactor (kg/hr). The volume of the second reactor is at least 10% greater than the volume of the first reactor, and the ratio of length to diameter of the first reactor, L/D(1), is greater than that of the second reactor, L/D(2).

Polymerisation process in which polyethylene is produced in slurry in a polymerisation reactor in the presence of a Ziegler Natta catalyst and an activator, and a stream or slurry containing the polymer is withdrawn from the reactor and transferred to a flash tank operating at a pressure and temperature such that at least 50 mol % of the liquid or non-polymer component of the stream entering the flash tank or slurry is withdrawn from the flash tank as a vapour and at least 98 mol % of the vapour withdrawn from the flash tank is capable of being condensed at a temperature of between 15 and 50&#xb0; C., without compression. A by-product suppressor, which reduces the amount of by-product formed per unit of polyethylene produced by at least 10%, compared with an identical polymerisation process where the by-product suppressor is not present, is used in the reactor. The molar ratio of the by-product suppressor added to the reactor to titanium added to the reactor is between 0.2 and 1.

Process for producing a multimodal polyethylene in at least two reactors connected in series, in which 20-80 wt % of a high molecular weight (HMW) polymer is made in suspension in a first reactor and 20-80 wt % of a low molecular weight (LMW) polymer is made in suspension in a second reactor in the presence of the HMW polymer, wherein the solids concentration in the second LMW reactor, defined as the mass of polymer divided by the total mass of slurry, is at least 35 wt %, most preferably between 45 wt % and 60 wt %, and/or the ratio of solids concentration in the first reactor to that in the second reactor is maintained at less than 1.0, preferably between 0.6 and 0.8, and further wherein the volume of the second reactor is at least 10%, preferably at least 30% and more preferably at least 50% greater than the volume of the first reactor.

Continuous process for manufacturing a polyolefin resin in at least two reactors in which in a first polymerization reactor, an olefin is polymerized continuously in the presence of a catalyst and a diluent to produce a first suspension comprising the diluent and polyolefin particles. At least a portion of the first suspension is transferred from the first polymerisation reactor to a second polymerisation reactor where further polymerisation takes place. A further suspension containing diluent and polymer particles is withdrawn from the second reactor and transferred to two separators, in each of which separators a diluent-rich flow and a concentrated suspension of polyolefin particles are formed and separated. The diluent-rich flow from one separator is recycled to a reactor preceding the second reactor, and the diluent-rich flow from the other separator is recycled to the second reactor. The invention enables higher separator efficiencies to be achieved.

Growing community of inventors

Vilvoorde, Belgium

Marc Parisel