Washing methods for ethylene-acrylic acid copolymer manufacturing process using solvent

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for producing an ethylene-based copolymer, and more particularly, to a method for producing an ethylene-based copolymer capable of increasing process efficiency by preventing plugging and corrosion of a facility. The method for producing an ethylene-based copolymer includes a producing mode and a washing mode of which one is selectively performed. The producing mode includes: a) hyper-compressing primary compressed ethylene, and a mixture including a carboxylic acid-containing comonomer and a polar solvent to produce a compressed material; b) reacting the compressed material to produce a reaction product including an ethylene-based copolymer; and c) separating and recovering unreacted residues from the reaction product and introducing the unreacted residues into the mixture of step a). The washing mode includes: re-supplying the compressed material produced in step a) to step a) as a mixture, without performing step b).