Absorption process for rejection of reactor byproducts and recovery of

Abstract

A process for rejecting reactor byproduct from the polymerization reactor in an olefins polymerization process wherein reactor waste gas stream(s) comprising unreacted monomers, reactor byproduct and light components are treated in an absorption process to additionally recover the monomers. The absorption process comprises contacting the reactor waste gas stream(s) with an absorption solvent in an absorption zone to produce a gas stream comprising the light components, and a liquid stream comprising the absorption solvent, absorbed reactor byproduct and absorbed monomers. The liquid stream is fractionated in a distillation column to produce a distillation column bottoms stream that is the absorption solvent which is conveyed to the absorption zone, and an overhead stream comprising the monomers and reactor byproduct which is further fractionated in a splitter column to reject the reactor byproduct as a bottoms stream. The recovered monomers from the splitter overhead can be conveyed to the reactor. In a preferred embodiment, the absorption solvent consists essentially of components derived from the reactor waste gas stream(s) so that no external solvent is required.