Powder Technology, Vol.327, 310-319, 2018
High performance gas-phase ethylene polymerization metallocene catalyst investigation in a pilot-plant fluidized bed reactor (1) experimental analysis
This work aims to explore the scaling up process of lab developed heterogeneous metallocene catalyst in a pilot plant scale fluidized bed reactor in comparison of benchmark catalyst producing polyethylene. The catalyst performance has been evaluated through copolymerization behaviors and polymerization kinetics. The produced polymers are analyzed in revealing the scale up effect of the catalyst. It was found that the catalyst particle size distribution shows very similar size distribution compared to the industrial catalyst and good particle morphology, which will benefit the gas phase fluidized bed operation. Compared to the benchmark HP-100, PME-18 shows better catalytic parameters in the ethylene/1-hexene polymerization behavior and reaction kinetics. The final product demonstrates very similar particle size distribution and polymer properties, which will obviously influence the product quality and production state. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Heterogeneous;Metallocene catalyst;Pilot-plant reactor;Scaling up;Particle size distribution