Process Economics Program Report 19F
Published: Jun-96
Supercritical polymerization in the slurry loop process provides potential advantages (e.g., higher productivity, improved product properties, no cavitation, absence of pressure shock) over subcritical polymerization. This report evaluates these potential benefits. For polyethylene, supercritical operation requires switching the diluent from isobutane to propane. For polypropylene, new catalysts that can perform at the high temperatures required in the supercritical range must be employed.
In addition to the technical and economical evaluations
customarily included in PEP reports, we have developed physical property relationships
for the complex mixtures involved in polyethylene polymerization. By estimating
the properties resulting from these relationships, we have arrived in turn at
the heat transfer calculations needed for technical-economical comparison. In
the literature, this information is available only as isolated literature data
points and is often incomplete. The physical property relationships developed
here should thus prove valuable for those without proprietary data.
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