High production circulating fluidized bed polymerization reactors

Abstract

Abstract This paper is an extension of the Gidaspow invention relating to fluidized bed polymerization reactors, such as the UNIPOL reactor or the later reactors containing cooling tubes. It shows that the polymer production rate can be increased by two or more orders of magnitude over that obtained in the UNIPOL reactor due to the orders of magnitude decreased adiabatic temperature rise. The CFD design of several size polyethylene reactors is described. In all cases the small catalyst particle concentrations are high at the walls showing that electrostatics is not the only mechanism for sheet formation.