Ineos Manufacturing Belgium Nv

Ineos Europe Ag

Bp Chemicals Limited

Ineos Commercial Services UK Limited

Ineos Sales (uk) Limited

Ineos Sales Limited

Stephen Kevin Lee

Brent R Walworth

Daniel Marissal

Jean-Louis Chamayou

Alex King

Jean-Claude Chinh

Michael Bernard Power

Bruno Grenouiller

Eric Cassisa

Geoffrey Chapman

Daniel Marrisal

Polymerization process in a loop reactor of an olefin monomer optionally together with an olefin commoner in the presence of a polymerization catalyst in a diluent to produce a slurry containing solid particulate olefin polymer and the diluent. The Froude number is maintained in the range of 2-15.

Slurry phase polymerisation process

Process for transitioning from the production of a first polymer to the production of a second polymer in a gas phase fluidized bed or stirred bed reactor by a) conducting a first polymerization reaction in the reactor using a first polymerization catalyst system to produce a first polymer, b) stopping the first polymerization reaction and removing at least the majority of the polymer in the reactor, c) introducing into the reactor a seed-bed containing at least 50 ppm of contaminants, in which the seedbed is maintained under at least 50 ppm but less than 500 ppm of contaminants during storage, and d) treating the seed-bed in the reactor to reduce the amount of contaminants. Step e) involves conducting a second polymerization reaction in the reactor to produce a second polymer.

Process for transitioning

The invention relates generally to a catalyst activator, and in particular to a catalyst activator for heat conditioning a catalyst, comprising: a) a vessel for containing a catalyst charge having an internal diameter of at least 1.2 meters and/or an internal volume of at least 5 m; b) a fluidization grid plate disposed in said vessel, said fluidization grid plate and having an upper major surface and a lower major surface; c) an array of generally conical depressions in said upper major surface that overlap by less than 17%; and d) an array of holes perforating said fluidization grid plate, said holes extending from at least some of said generally conical depressions through said lower surface.

Process for catalyst activation

Process including polymerizing in a loop reactor an olefin monomer optionally together with an olefin commoner in the presence of a polymerization catalyst in a diluent to produce a slurry comprising solid particulate olefin polymer and the diluent. The Froude number is maintained at or below 20.

Catalyst activator

Catalyst activator, in particular, a catalyst activator for heat conditioning a catalyst. The activator includes a vessel for containing a catalyst charge having an internal diameter of at least 1.2 meters and/or an internal volume of at least 5 m; a fluidisation grid plate disposed in the vessel, the fluidisation grid plate having an upper major surface and a lower major surface; an array of generally conical depressions in the upper major surface that overlap by less than 17%; and an array of holes perforating the fluidisation grid plate, the holes extending from at least some of the generally conical depressions through the lower surface.

Catalyst activation process

Process for polymerizing in a loop reactor an olefin monomer optionally together with an olefin comonomer in the presence of a polymerization catalyst in a diluent to produce a slurry including solid particulate olefin polymer and the diluent. The Froude number is in the range 3 to 10, the internal diameter of the loop reactor is over 600 millimeters, the solids concentration of the slurry in the loop reactor is above 20% by volume and, when the polymer produced is polyethylene and the diluent is an alkane, the solids concentration is above 40 wt % based on the total weight of the slurry.

The present invention relates to production of polymer, and in particular provides an interlock for use in a process for production of a polymer in a reactor, which process comprises: a. polymerising a monomer and optionally a comonomer in the reactor to produce polymer, optionally in the presence of an inert hydrocarbon, and b. withdrawing produced polymer from the reactor, said interlock being based on the temperature in the reactor, and comprising: 1. measuring the temperature in the reactor or a temperature representative of the temperature in the reactor, and 2. comparing said measured temperature to a threshold temperature, said interlock being characterized in that withdrawal is allowed if the measured temperature is greater than the threshold temperature but is prevented if the measured temperature is lower than the threshold temperature.

Interlock and process

Polymerization process in a slurry loop reactor having a slurry loop reaction zone with a volume of at least 50 mand an internal diameter (D) of 50 cm or greater, a feed inlet for monomers and diluent, a catalyst inlet for polymerisation catalyst, and a discharge conduit for removal of polymer. Monomer, diluent and catalyst are passed into the reaction zone through their respective inlets where they form a slurry of polymer solids having a polymer solids concentration in the reaction zone of greater than 20 wt %. The space-time yield (STY) is greater than 100 kg/h/m, and the catalyst inlet is an inlet pipe such that no part of the inlet pipe protrudes beyond the wall of the reaction zone and into the reaction zone by more than 1/10of the diameter of the reaction zone at the point where the inlet pipe joins the reaction zone.

Reactor

Interlock for use in a process for degassing of a polymer powder in a degassing vessel. The interlock includes (a) measuring the temperature of the vapor phase resulting from a liquid-vapor separation, which vapor phase is used as a purge gas in a degassing vessel, (b) comparing the measured temperature to a threshold value, and (c) in the event that the measured temperature is above the threshold value then use of the vapor as purge gas is stopped or reduced.

A process comprising polymerizing in a loop reactor an olefin monomer optionally together with an olefin commoner in the presence of a polymerization catalyst in a diluent to produce a slurry comprising solid particulate olefin polymer and the diluent wherein the Froude number is maintained at or below 20 is disclosed.

A process comprising polymerising in a loop reactor of continuous tubular construction an olefin monomer optionally together with an olefin comonomer in the presence of a polymerisation catalyst in a diluent to produce a slurry comprising solid particulate olefin polymer and the diluent wherein the internal diameter of at least 50% of the total length of the reactor is at least 700 millimeters and the solids concentration in the reactor is at least 20 volume % is disclosed.

Process comprising polymerizing in a loop reactor of a continuous tubular construction an olefin monomer optionally together with an olefin comonomer in the presence of a polymerization catalyst in a diluent to produce a slurry comprising solid particulate olefin polymer and the diluent, wherein the average internal diameter of at least 50% of the total length of the continuous tubular loop reactor is at least 700 mm wherein the HMW polymer is produced in a reactor upstream of the LMW polymer reactor and the ratio of the average internal diameter of the HMW reactor to the average internal diameter of the LMW reactor is between 0.8 and 1.4.

A process comprising polymerising in a loop reactor of a continuous tubular construction an olefin monomer optionally together with an olefin comonomer in the presence of a polymerisation catalyst in a diluent to produce a slurry comprising solid particulate olefin polymer and the diluent wherein the average internal diameter of at least 50% of the total length of the reactor is at least 650 millimeters, the solids concentration in the reactor is at least 15 volume % and having a particle size distribution such that (D90&#x2212;D10)/D50 is less than 2.

A process for controlling a slurry phase (co-) polymerisation process in the presence of a polymerisation catalyst, which comprises maintaining the density SPAN of the polymer powder particles (defined as the absolute value of the density difference in g/cmbetween the average density of the polymer particles exiting the reactor with particle size above D90 and the average density of the material with particle size below D10) below 0.005, preferably below 0.003, more preferably below 0.0026, most preferably below 0.0023.

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London, United Kingdom

Stephen Kevin Lee