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

该奖项支持William C.康纳 小的， 马萨诸塞州大学的一个合作项目， Mario G教授的研究科学研究所的奇维塔 化学工业技术开发（INTEC）， 阿根廷圣菲国立文学的大学，旨在 实验测定催化剂形态的变化 用于烯烃聚合，并在开发模型， 能量和质量的传输过程， 聚合法 物理理解和能力， 将使用本研究得出的过程量化结果 作为表示聚合反应的基础， 计算聚合物产量和性能对 工艺条件和催化剂形态的变化。 最终，这些知识应该导致生产的改进 效率和产量。 聚烯烃如聚丙烯，聚乙烯， 乙烯-丙烯的弹性体和共聚物具有很大的 商业利益。淤浆、本体或气相工艺， 生产哪种不同的聚烯烃取决于所用的催化剂 以及工艺条件，特别是那些 确定催化剂分解的动力学。 为了 在较新方法中提高聚烯烃的产率， 在气相中，调查人员试图获得详细的 通过开发一个 定义事件序列所需的实验数据库 发生在初始催化剂颗粒的破裂中。 他们将 使用数据库来定义碎片化 根据产生变化的事件的顺序， 固体颗粒的形态，最后， 一个数学模型来描述在 整个过程 在这项工作中，马萨诸塞州大学的 在进行聚合实验的经验将结合 具有INTEC的建模和仿真专业知识， 非均相聚合工艺，总体效益应该是 这是由两国的聚合物工业实现的。

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.