Processes and processing plants for the removal of catalysts used in the manufacture of polyisobutylene and highly reactive polyisobutylene

A process for producing HR-PIB, the process comprising:

• feeding an isobutylene-containing stream into a polymerization reactor;
• injecting an amount of polymerization catalyst into the polymerization reactor to form a mixture comprising isobutylene and polymerization catalyst, the amount of the polymerization catalyst sufficient to catalyze an isobutylene polymerization reaction to form HR-PIB, the polymerization catalyst comprising a Lewis acid catalyst;
• sorbing the polymerization catalyst onto a solid substrate, the resultant solid substrate comprising sorbed polymerization catalyst having a concentration of the polymerization catalyst that is about 1 wt % or more (calculated as wt % of Lewis acid catalyst) based on a total wt % of the solid substrate comprising sorbed polymerization catalyst, the total wt % of the solid substrate comprising sorbed polymerization catalyst equal to 100 wt %, wherein sorbing the polymerization catalyst onto the solid substrate occurs before, during, and/or after the isobutylene polymerization reaction;
• and
• removing the solid substrate comprising sorbed polymerization catalyst from the mixture by solid-liquid separation.

A processing plant for producing HR-PIB, comprising:

• a tubular loop reactor configured to:
• perform isobutylene polymerization;
• form a reaction product mixture comprising HR-PIB;
• and
• discharge the reaction product mixture comprising the HR-PIB;
• a tubular loop sorber coupled to the tubular loop reactor and positioned downstream from the tubular loop reactor, the tubular loop sorber equipped with one or more in-line circulation pumps and a multi-pass tube-in-shell heat exchanger, the tubular loop sorber configured to:
• receive the reaction product mixture from the tubular loop reactor;
• facilitate sorption of a polymerization catalyst present in the reaction product mixture onto a solid substrate;
• and
• discharge the reaction product mixture comprising the HR-PIB and the solid substrate comprising sorbed polymerization catalyst;
• a solid-liquid separation unit coupled to the tubular loop sorber and positioned downstream from the tubular loop sorber, the solid-liquid separation unit configured to:
• separate the solid substrate comprising sorbed polymerization catalyst from the reaction product mixture;
• discharge the solid substrate comprising sorbed polymerization catalyst;
• and
• discharge an HR-PIB containing filtrate.