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US 7,163,989 B2Granted
Processes and apparatus for continuous solution polymerization
AssigneeExxon Mobile Chemical Patents Inc.
InventorChris B. Friedersdorf
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
This invention relates to processes and plants for continuous solution polymerization. Such plan and process include a pressure source, a polymerization reactor, downstream of said pressure source, pressure let-down device, downstream of said polymerization reactor, and a separator, downstream of said pressure let-down device, wherein said pressure source is sufficient to provide pressure to said reaction mixture during operation of said process plant to produce a single-phase liquid reaction mixture in said reactor and a two-phase liquid-liquid reaction mixture in said separator in the absence of an additional pressure source between said reactor and said separator.
Claims88
A continuous solution polymerization process comprising:
- (a) forming a feed comprising one or more olefinically unsaturated monomers and a hydrocarbon solvent;
- (b) raising the pressure of the feed to at least 75 bar
- (c) passing the feed into a reaction zone, and contacting the feed with a single site catalyst to form a polymerization mixture;
- (d) adding a catalyst killer to the polymerization mixture;
- (e) subsequent to step (d), heating the polymerization mixture and subsequently reducing the pressure of the polymerization mixture, wherein upon said pressure reduction, the polymerization mixture passes through the lower critical solution phase boundary regardless of the initial polymerization pressure;
- (f) separating the polymerization mixture into a lean phase and a concentrated phase;
- (g) recycling at least a portion of the lean phase to step (a);
- (h) cooling the lean phase;
- and
- (i) drying the lean phase.
7 more elements
A continuous solution polymerization process comprising:
- (a) forming a feed comprising one or more olefinically unsaturated monomers and a hydrocarbon solvent;
- (b) raising the pressure of the feed to at least 75 bar;
- (c) passing the feed through a reaction zone, and contacting the feed with a single site catalyst to form a polymerization mixture;
- (d) adding a catalyst killer to the polymerization mixture;
- (e) subsequent to step (d), heating the polymerization mixture and subsequently reducing the pressure of the polymerization mixture, wherein upon said pressure reduction, the polymerization mixture passes through the lower critical solution phase boundary regardless of the initial polymerization pressure;
- (f) separating the polymerization mixture into a lean phase and a concentrated phase;
- (g) removing hydrogen from the lean phase;
- and
- (h) recycling at least a portion of the lean phase to step (a).
6 more elements
A continuous solution polymerization process comprising:
- (a) forming a feed comprising one or more olefinically unsaturated monomers and a hydrocarbon solvent;
- (b) raising the pressure of the feed to at least 75 bar;
- (c) passing the feed into a reaction zone, and contacting the feed with a single site catalyst to form a polymerization mixture;
- (d) adding a catalyst killer to the polymerization mixture;
- (e) subsequent to step (d), heating the polymerization mixture and subsequently reducing the pressure of the polymerization mixture, wherein upon said pressure reduction, the polymerization mixture passes through the lower critical solution phase boundary regardless of the initial polymerization pressure;
- and
- (f) separating the polymerization mixture into a lean phase and a concentrated phase;
- wherein the polymerization mixture from the reaction zone arrangement is heated successively by one or more heat exchangers and the separated lean phase supplies heat to one or more of the heat exchangers.
5 more elements
A continuous solution polymerization process comprising:
- (a) forming a feed comprising one or more olefinically unsaturated monomers and a hydrocarbon solvent;
- (b) raising the pressure of the feed to at least 75 bar;
- (c) passing the feed into a reaction zone, and contacting the feed with a single site catalyst to form a polymerization mixture;
- (d) adding a catalyst killer to the polymerization mixture;
- (e) subsequent to step (d), heating the polymerization mixture and subsequently reducing the pressure of the polymerization mixture, wherein upon said pressure reduction, the polymerization mixture passes through the lower critical solution phase boundary regardless of the initial polymerization pressure;
- (f) separating the polymerization mixture into a lean phase and a concentrated phase;
- and
- (g) removing hydrogen from the lean phase.
5 more elements
A continuous solution polymerization process comprising:
- (a) forming a feed comprising one or more olefinically unsaturated monomers and a hydrocarbon solvent;
- (b) raising the pressure of the feed to at least 75 bar;
- (c) passing the feed into a reaction zone, and contacting the feed with a single site catalyst to form a polymerization mixture;
- (d) adding a catalyst killer to the polymerization mixture;
- (e) subsequent to step (d), heating the polymerization mixture and subsequently reducing the pressure of the polymerization mixture;
- and
- (f) separating the polymerization mixture into a lean phase and a concentrated phase;
- further comprising contacting a stripping vapor with the lean phase in a countercurrent flow arrangement to concentrate the hydrogen in the vapor phase for removal from the lean phase recycle.
5 more elements
A continuous solution polymerization process comprising:
- (a) forming a feed comprising one or more olefinically unsaturated monomers and a hydrocarbon solvent;
- (b) raising the pressure of the feed to at least 75 bar;
- (c) passing the feed into a reaction zone, and contacting the feed with a single site catalyst to form a polymerization mixture;
- (d) adding a catalyst killer to the polymerization mixture;
- (e) subsequent to step (d), heating the polymerization mixture and subsequently reducing the pressure of the polymerization mixture;
- and
- (f) separating the polymerization mixture into a lean phase and a concentrated phase;
- wherein the reaction zone comprises a pair of reactors arranged in series and hydrogen is added to the downstream reactor to produce a lower molecular weight fraction.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.