Method and apparatus for producing hips using continuous polybutadiene feed
AssigneeFina Technology, Inc.
InventorsBrad Klussmann, Jon Schweinle, Doug Berti, Thanh Nguyen, Jose Sosa
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for use in making high impact polystyrene by polymerizing butadiene into polybutadiene, continuously exchanging styrene monomer for the solvent used to produce the polybutadiene, and polymerizing the resultant polybutadiene/styrene solution into high impact polystyrene. Apparatus is disclosed that includes butadiene and solvent preparation means, additive metering means, butadiene polymerization means, solvent exchange means, solvent recovery means and styrene polymerization means.
Claims17
A method for making a rubber-modified monovinyl aromatic polymer wherein the rubber is polybutadiene, the method comprising the steps of:
- introducing materials comprising butadiene, a preheated hydrocarbon solvent, and a polymerization catalyst into a continuous-stirred tank reactor;
- controlling the temperature and reaction conditions to initiate polymerization of the butadiene to polybutadiene within the mixture;
- polymerizing the butadiene until reaching a polybutadiene concentration of from about 9 to about 15 weight percent by weight of the mixture;
- diluting the mixture containing the polybutadiene by introducing a monovinyl aromatic monomer;
- heating the diluted mixture and flashing off the hydrocarbon solvent and unreacted butadiene monomer to produce a solution of polybutadiene in the monovinyl aromatic monomer;
- forming a polymerizable mixture comprising the solution of polybutadiene in the monovinyl aromatic monomer;
- controlling the temperature to polymerize the monovinyl aromatic monomer, thereby producing a monovinyl aromatic polymer containing grafted polybutadiene.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.