Method of regulating hydrogen to a polymerization reactor
AssigneeExxonMobil Chemical Patents Inc.
InventorsChristopher G. Bauch, Todd S. Edwards, Daniel L. Bilbao, Kevin W. Lawson, Blu E. Englehorn
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed is a method of reducing and/or regulating the level of hydrogen in a polymerization reactor comprising contacting a first feed comprising a first amount of hydrogen with a hydrogenation catalyst prior to entering a polymerization reactor to form a second feed; then contacting the second feed having a second amount of hydrogen with monomers and a polymerization catalyst in a polymerization reactor to form a polymer. The first and second feeds may reside in a feed line from one reactor to another, a monomer feed line to the reactor, or in a recycle line to and from the same reactor.
Claims28
A method of regulating hydrogen in a polymerization reactor comprising:
- providing a first reactor and a second reactor fluidly connected and arranged in series;
- contacting α-olefin monomers and a polymerization catalyst in the first reactor to form a first polyolefin;
- contacting a first feed comprising hydrogen, the polymerization catalyst, and the first polyolefin with a hydrogenation catalyst to form a second feed;
- contacting the second feed with α-olefin monomers and the same or different polymerization catalyst in the second reactor to form a polyolefin impact copolymer;
- wherein the second reactor is a gas phase reactor comprising an expansion zone, a fluidized bed zone, and a feed line fluidly connected to the gas phase reactor, wherein contacting the first feed with the hydrogenation catalyst takes place within the feed line;
- wherein the amount of hydrogen in the first feed is greater than that in the second feed.
A method of reducing hydrogen in a polymerization reaction comprising:
- contacting a first feed comprising hydrogen with a hydrogenation catalyst prior to entering a polymerization reactor to form a second feed;
- contacting the second feed with α-olefin monomers and a polymerization catalyst in the polymerization reactor to form a polyolefin;
- wherein the amount of hydrogen in the first feed is greater than that in the second feed.
A method of regulating hydrogen in a polymerization reactor comprising:
- providing a first reactor and a second reactor fluidly connected and arranged in series;
- contacting α-olefin monomers and a polymerization catalyst in the first reactor to form a first polyolefin;
- contacting a first feed comprising hydrogen, the polymerization catalyst, and the first polyolefin with a hydrogenation catalyst to form a second feed;
- wherein the hydrogenation catalyst comprises a titanocene catalyst precursor and an alkylaluminum at a molar ratio of alkylaluminum to titanocene of from 1 to 5;
- contacting the second feed with α-olefin monomers and the same or different polymerization catalyst in the second reactor to form a polyolefin impact copolymer;
- wherein the amount of hydrogen in the first feed is greater than that in the second feed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.