Recovery of unreacted monomers in olefin polymerization process
AssigneeMobil Oil Corporation
InventorsCarol S. Lee, John L. Pickering, Jr.
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Abstract
There is disclosed a process for recovering olefin monomers, e.g., C.sub.3 -C.sub.10 alpha-olefins, from a vent gas of a vapor phase process for polymerizing olefins. The method comprises passing the vent gas, obtained by purging a resin produced in the polymerization process with an inert gas, such as nitrogen, into contact with an adsorbent to effect the adsorption of an olefin monomer. Subsequently, the adsorbed monomer is removed by contacting the adsorbent with a second monomer having lower molecular weight than the adsorbed monomer.
Claims16
A method of recovering at least one olefin monomer from a vent gas of a vapor phase olefin polymerization process, which comprises passing the vent gas containing at least one olefin monomer into contact with an adsorbent for a sufficient time and substantially at the conditions at which the vent gas is produced in the polymerization process to effect the adsorption of at least one olefin monomer, contacting the adsorbent with a second at least one olefin monomer having lower molecular weight than the first monomer to desorb the first monomer from the adsorbent, thereby producing a second monomer-containing stream comprising the first monomer, the contacting of the adsorbent with the second monomer being carried out substantially at the conditions at which the second monomer is used as a feed in a reactor of the polymerization process, and conducting the second monomer-containing stream into the reactor of the vapor phase polymerization process.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.