Modeling and Simulation of Ethylene Polymerization in Industrial Slurry Reactor Series

A five-site comprehensive mathematical model was developed to simulate the steady-state behavior of industrial slurry polymerization of ethylene in multistage continuous stirred tank reactors. More specifically, the effects of various operating conditions (i.e., inflow rates of catalyst, hydrogen and comonomer) on the molecular structure and properties of polyethylene (i.e., Mw, Mn, polydispersity index (IPD), melt index, density, etc.) are fully assessed. It is shown that the proposed comprehensive model is capable of simulating the steady-state operation of an industrial slurry stirred tank reactor series. It is demonstrated that changing the catalyst flow rate, changes simultaneously the mean residence-time in both reactors, which plays a significant role on the establishment of polyethylene architecture properties such as molecular mass and IPD. The melt index and density of polyethylene are mainly controlled by hydrogen and comonomer concentration, respectively.