Process for the gas-phase polymerization of ethylene or ethylene mixtures

Abstract

A process for the gas-phase polymerization of ethylene or a mixture of ethylene and one or more 1 olefins in the presence of a polymerization catalyst system comprising the steps a) feeding a solid catalyst component, which was obtained by contacting at least a magnesium compound and a titanium compound, to a continuously operated apparatus and contacting the solid catalyst component with an aluminum alkyl compound at a temperature of from 0° C. to 70° C. in a way that the mean residence time of the solid catalyst component in contact with the aluminum alkyl compound is from 5 to 300 minutes; b) transferring the catalyst component formed in step a) into another continuously operated apparatus and prepolymerizing it with ethylene or a mixture of ethylene and one or more 1 olefins in suspension at a temperature of from 10° C. to 80° forming polymer in an amount of from 0.2 to 25 g polymer/g of solid catalyst component in a way that the mean residence time of the solid catalyst component in the apparatus is from 5 minutes to 3 hours; and c) transferring the prepolymerized catalyst component formed in step b) into a gas-phase polymerization reactor and polymerizing ethylene or a mixture of ethylene and one or more 1 olefins in the presence of the prepolymerized catalyst component at temperatures of from 40° C. to 120° C. and pressures of from 0.1 to 10 MPa.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.