U.S.-Argentina Cooperative Research on the Polymerization of Olefins from the Gas Phase

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This award supports the participation of Prof. William C. Conner, Jr., of the University of Massachusetts, in a program of cooperative research with Prof. Mario G. Chiovetta of the Institute of Technological Development for the Chemical Industry (INTEC), Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Santa Fe, Argentina, aimed at experimentally determining the changes in the morphology of catalysts used for olefin polymerization, and at developing models for the energy and mass transport processes that occur during polymerization. The physical understanding and the capability for process quantification that will result from this study will be used as a basis for representing the polymerization reaction and calculating the dependence of polymer production and properties on the process conditions and the changing catalysts morphology. Ultimately, this knowledge should lead to improvement of production efficiency and yield. The production of such polyolefins as polypropylene, polyethylene, and elastomers and copolymers of ethylene-propylene is of great commercial interest. The slurry, bulk, or gas-phase processes by which different polyolefins are produced depend on the catalysts used as well as process conditions, in particular those conditions which determine the dynamics of the catalyst breakdown. In order to improve yield of polyolefins in such newer processes as that using the gas phase, the investigators seek to obtain a detailed understanding of the breakdown mechanism by developing an experimental data base as required to define the sequence of events occurring in the breakdown of initial catalyst particles. They will use the data base to develop a definition of the fragmentation process in terms of the sequence of events generating the changes in the morphology of the solid particles and, finally, they will develop a mathematical model to represent the phenomena taking place during the entire process. In this work, University of Massachusetts' experience in performing polymerization experiments will be combined with expertise at INTEC in the modeling and simulation of heterogeneous polymerization processes, and overall benefit should be realized by the polymer industries of both countries.