Effect of initiator concentration to low-density polyethylene production in a tubular reactor

2nd International Conference on Chemical Engineering (ICCE) UNPAR

Azmi, A.^1 ; Aziz, N.^1

School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Seri Ampangan, Nibong Tebal, Seberang Perai Selatan, Penang

14300, Malaysia^1

关键词: Initiator concentration;    Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE);    Operating condition;    Polymerization rates;    Polymerization reaction;    Product specifications;    Reactor temperatures;    Steady-state mathematical model;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/162/1/012023/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1757-899X/162/1/012023

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is one of the most widely used polymers in the world, which is produced in high-capacity tubular and autoclave reactors. As the LDPE industry turn into more competitive and its market profit margins become tighter, manufacturers have to develop solutions to debottleneck the reactor output while abiding to the stringent product specification. A single polyolefin plant producing ten to forty grades of LDPE with various melt flow index (MFI), therefore understanding the reaction mechanism, the operating conditions as well as the dynamic behavior of tubular reactor is essential before any improvement can take place. In the present work, a steady state mathematical model representing a tubular reactor for the production of LDPE is simulated using MATLAB R2015a®. The model developed is a function of feed inlet, reactor jacket, single initiator injector and outlet stream. Analysis on the effect of initiator concentration (CI) shows sudden declining trend of initiator's concentration which indicates that all of the initiators are exhausted after polymerization reaction and no further reaction occur from this point onwards. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the concentration of initiator gives significant impact on reactor temperature's profile and monomer conversion rate, since higher initiator concentration promotes greater polymerization rate, and therefore leads to higher monomer conversion throughput.