Union Carbide Corporation

Robert W Bobst

Billy Jack Garner

Frederick W Jacob

A degassing or purging process is disclosed for the removal of unpolymerized gaseous monomers from solid olefin polymers. The disclosed process comprises conveying the solid polymer, e.g. in granular form, to the top of a purge vessel by means of an inert gas stream, feeding an inert gas stream to the bottom of the purge vessel and countercurrently contacting the solid polymer with the inert gas purge stream to strip away the gaseous monomers evolved from the solid polymer, and recycling a portion of the resulting stream to the purge vessel. In one embodiment, the recycle serves as the conveying gas and in another embodiment as the purge stream. The process is especially useful in purging gaseous unpolymerized hydrocarbon monomers from low pressure-polymerized, low density ethylene-hydrocarbon copolymers.

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Charleston, WV, United States of America

Robert W Bobst