TY - JOUR
T1 - Dynamic modeling of gas phase propylene homopolymerization in fluidized bed reactors
AU - Shamiri, Ahmad
AU - Azlan Hussain, Mohamed
AU - Sabri Mjalli, Farouq
AU - Mostoufi, Navid
AU - Saleh Shafeeyan, Mohammad
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank the Research Council of University of Malaya for its support to this research under research grant (No. RG054/09AET ).
PY - 2011/3/15
Y1 - 2011/3/15
N2 - A new model with comprehensive kinetics for propylene homopolymerization in fluidized bed reactors was developed to investigate the effect of mixing, operating conditions, kinetic and hydrodynamic parameters on the reactor performance as well as polymer properties. Presence of the particles in the bubbles and the excess gas in the emulsion phase was considered to improve the two-phase model, thus, considering the polymerization reaction to take place in both the bubble and emulsion phases. It was shown that in the practical range of superficial gas velocity and catalyst feed rate, the ratio of produced polymer in the bubble phase to the total production rate is roughly between 10% and 13%, which is a substantial amount and cannot be ignored. Simulation studies were carried out to compare the results of the improved two-phase, conventional well-mixed and constant bubble size models. The improved two-phase and well mixed models predicted a narrower and safer window at the same running conditions compared with the constant bubble size model. The improved two-phase model showed close dynamic behavior to the conventional models at the beginning of polymerization, but starts to diverge with the evolution of time.
AB - A new model with comprehensive kinetics for propylene homopolymerization in fluidized bed reactors was developed to investigate the effect of mixing, operating conditions, kinetic and hydrodynamic parameters on the reactor performance as well as polymer properties. Presence of the particles in the bubbles and the excess gas in the emulsion phase was considered to improve the two-phase model, thus, considering the polymerization reaction to take place in both the bubble and emulsion phases. It was shown that in the practical range of superficial gas velocity and catalyst feed rate, the ratio of produced polymer in the bubble phase to the total production rate is roughly between 10% and 13%, which is a substantial amount and cannot be ignored. Simulation studies were carried out to compare the results of the improved two-phase, conventional well-mixed and constant bubble size models. The improved two-phase and well mixed models predicted a narrower and safer window at the same running conditions compared with the constant bubble size model. The improved two-phase model showed close dynamic behavior to the conventional models at the beginning of polymerization, but starts to diverge with the evolution of time.
KW - Bubble
KW - Catalyst
KW - Emulsion
KW - Fluidization
KW - Mathematical modeling
KW - Propylene polymerization
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ces.2010.12.030
DO - 10.1016/j.ces.2010.12.030
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:79551487008
SN - 0009-2509
VL - 66
SP - 1189
EP - 1199
JO - Chemical Engineering Science
JF - Chemical Engineering Science
IS - 6
ER -