Low density polyethylene

Two types of reactors are used for the production of LDPE: either a stirred vessel (autoclave) or a tubular reactor. The autoclave reactor operates adiabatically. The tubular reactor is cooled with a jacket. The autoclave reactor has a length to diameter ratio (L/D) between 4 and 16. Tu-bular reactors have L/D ratios above 10000. The inner diameter of the high pressure tubes used for the tubular reactors range between 25 and 100 mm. The operating pressure ranges between 100 and 250 MPa (1000 – 2500 bars) for the autoclave reactor and between 200 - 350 MPa (2000 - 3500 bar) for the tubular reactor. A basic flow diagram for LDPE processes is shown in Figure 3.7.

Apart from the different types of reactors used, the autoclave and tubular reactor processes are very similar. The two types of reactors produce, however, products which have a different mo-lecular structure and are, therefore, used in different product applications.

Modern crackers produce ethylene of sufficient purity to be used in the high pressure process without the need for additional purification. The fresh ethylene is normally delivered to the high pressure plant by a pipeline grid. If the high pressure plant is located on the same site as the cracker, the ethylene can be delivered directly from the cracker.

MP/EIPPCB/POL_BREF_FINAL Oktober 2006 39 The supply pressure can range between 1 and 10 MPa. A first compressor (primary or medium pressure compressor) increases the ethylene pressure to 20 – 30 MPa. The number of compres-sion steps depends on the pressure of the ethylene which is supplied to the plant. If this pressure is above 3 MPa, the primary compressor typically has two compression stages. Because the ethylene gas is used as a heat sink for the heat generated by the exothermic reaction, the ethyl-ene gas is not totally converted to a polymer in the reactor. The unreacted gas is recycled back into the process. This recycled ethylene is combined with the fresh ethylene at the outlet dis-charge of the primary compressor. The combined gas streams are fed to the suction of the high pressure compressor. This compressor increases the pressure of the reactor up to 150 – 350 MPa in two steps. The process gas is cooled with cooling water and/or chilled water between the two compression steps.

To tailor the application properties of the polymer, different initiation systems and chain trans-fer agents (modifier) are used. Typical initiators are oxygen or organic peroxides. To control the molecular weight distribution of the polymer produced, polar modifiers (aldehydes, ketones or alcohols) or aliphatic hydrocarbons are fed into the monomer stream.

The reactor is protected by pressure relief devices which guarantee an immediate release of the reactor content in case a runaway reaction occurs. The runaway reaction of ethylene causes a sharp increase in pressure and temperature. These sharp increases cause the activation of the emergency relief system. Because of the fast response required, the emergency relief systems of the reactor vent the content of the reactor to the air.

The operating pressure is controlled by a valve at the reactor outlet. The pressure is reduced by this high pressure valve from the reactor pressure down to 15 - 30 MPa. Because the ethylene polymer mixture heats up due to the pressure reduction (the so-called Reverse Joule Thomson effect), the reaction mixture is cooled in a heat exchanger at the exit of the reactor. The polymer and unreacted gas are separated in a first separator (HPS or high pressure separator) operating at 15 – 30 MPa. The unreacted gas stream from the HPS is then cooled in a series of cooling water coolers. Part of the exothermic reaction heat can be recuperated in this section to generate low pressure steam. This steam can be consumed internally, thereby significantly improving the energy efficiency of the process. Typically, each cooler is followed by a smaller separator in which the waxy oligomers are removed from the recycled gas. Although most of the unreacted gas is removed from the polymer in the HPS, at least one additional separation step is necessary to remove the dissolved gas almost completely (<1 wt-%) from the melted polymer. This sepa-ration step is carried out in a low pressure separator (LPS, also called an extrusion hopper) at operating pressures down to 0.15 MPa. The pressure at this separation step is a compromise between a low level of residual ethylene monomer in the final product and compression energy savings. The gas separated from the polymer in this second separation step is also recycled back into the process. It is compressed in several stages up to the supply pressure of the fresh ethyl-ene. A small side-stream is sent back to the cracker or to a dedicated purification unit to limit the build-up of impurities in the process.

The low pressure separator (LPS) is, in most cases, mounted directly onto a hot melt extruder.

The polymer is fed directly into this hot melt extruder and pelletised in an underwater pelletiser.

If required by the application of the product, additives can be added to the melted polymer in the extruder. After pelletising, the product is dried, temporarily stored and tested for quality. If re-quired, the product is blended in specially designed silos to smoothen small quality variations which occurred during the polymerisation. During the intermediate storage, the product is de-gassed by air to remove the last residual ethylene from the product. If higher pressures are used in the LPS, degassing hot melt extruders can be used to remove the residual ethylene from the product. After quality control, degassing and blending, the product is pneumatically conveyed into storage silos or directly sent to the packaging or bulk loading areas.

Special equipment and technology is required because of the high operating pressure used. Key operating characteristics and design details are mostly treated as proprietary information. The design rules for the reactors are those of thick-walled vessels and tubes. The high pressure re-quires the use of reciprocating compressors and pumps. The most typical and important com-pressor used in the high pressure process is the high pressure comcom-pressor, sometimes also called the hyper compressor. The losses which occur in these compact machines by leaking gas across the piston rings in the cylinders, are normally recycled internally within the LDPE process.

Figure 3.7: Flow diagram showing LDPE production

3.2.2.1 Autoclave reactor

The autoclave reactor has an agitator to obtain good quality mixing and performs as an adiabatic CSTR (continuous stirred tank reactor). The volumes of the autoclave reactors can vary between 250 litres (reactors of the 1960s) up to 1500 litres for the more recent reactors. The residence time can vary between 30 - 60 seconds depending upon the technology used. In most technolo-gies, the electric motor driving the agitator is built inside the top zone of the reactor. The ethyl-ene entering the reactor is used to cool the motor.

The elongated form of the reactor is due to the manufacturing requirements (it is fabricated from thick-walled forging). The length/diameter ratio (L/D) of the autoclave is also set by the product properties required. Longer autoclaves allow developing temperature profiles along the reactor length by dividing the reactor into multiple zones. The use of different temperature profiles allows tailoring of the product properties. The reaction temperature is controlled in each tem-perature zone by the injection of controlled amounts of organic peroxides which act as initiators.

These initiators decompose under the influence of the temperature and generate the free radicals which start the polymerisation reaction. To maintain the temperature at a given set point, differ-ent types of initiators are used. It is important that the initiators are completely consumed before they exit the reactor with the gas stream. If an excessive amount of free radicals exit the reactor, the polymerisation reaction can continue outside the reactor. This causes upsets in the process and poor quality products. The initiators are dissolved into a hydrocarbon solvent. This solution is injected through side holes in the wall of the vessel. Some technologies also use these side holes to inject a controlled amount of ethylene gas. The cooling action of this gas is used to control the temperatures in the reactor. The operating temperatures of autoclave reactors vary between 180 and 300 °C. The reactor walls also have holes for the installation of thermo-elements and pressure relief devices.

MP/EIPPCB/POL_BREF_FINAL Oktober 2006 41 In the high pressure polymerisation of ethylene, the fresh ethylene is used as the heat sink for the heat generated by the exothermic polymerisation reaction. The conversion to polymer, at adiabatic conditions, is calculated with the following formula:

Conversion (%) = 0.075*(reaction temperature – ethylene inlet temperature).

3.2.2.2 Tubular reactor

The commercial tubular reactors are typically between 1000 and 2500 metres long. They are built up of high pressure tubes each 10 to 15 metres long in a serpentine like structure within a concrete bay. In the 1960s, the internal diameter of the high pressure tubes was limited to 25 mm. Recent progress in the metallurgy of high strength materials has allowed the manufac-ture of high pressure tubes of up to 100 mm of internal diameter (ID). These high pressure tubes have Doutside/Dinsideratios of 2.1 to 2.5. Thermo-elements are installed along the length of the reac-tor to follow the progress of the polymerisation reaction. As for the autoclave reacreac-tor, inlets for an initiator, fresh ethylene gas and pressure relief devices are installed at selected locations along the reactor.

The first section of the reactor is used as preheater. The ethylene temperature must be suffi-ciently high to start the reaction. While only organic peroxides are used as an initiator for the autoclave reactor, oxygen (air) is also used to generate the free radicals needed to initiate the polymerisation reaction in the tubular reactor. The initiation temperature can, therefore, range from 140 °C (peroxides) to 180 °C (oxygen). When oxygen is used as the initiator, the air is added to the ethylene gas in the lower pressure zones of the process. In the case of peroxide initiators, the amount added is controlled by adjusting the speed of high pressure pumps. The control of the polymer chain length by temperature does not give enough freedom to tailor the polymer properties. Therefore, a chain transfer agent (modifier) is necessary. Typically, polar modifiers (aldehydes, ketones or alcohols) are used. While at high polymerisation temperatures, even normally less active aliphatic hydrocarbons can be used.

The injection of an initiator or a mixture of ethylene/air at different points in the reactor gener-ates a number of zones with higher temperatures (so-called peaks) followed by cooling zones in which the reaction heat is removed from the ethylene/polymer mixture. These temperature peaks/cooling cycles can be repeated several times along the length of the reactor. Because of the heat transfer through the walls of the reactor, the tubular reactor has a higher conversion rate to polymer than the autoclave. Conversion rates of up to 36 % are achieved (autoclave reactors achieve approximately 20 %). The conversion to polymer influences the properties of the prod-uct. At higher conversion rates, the degree of branching increases.

The exothermic heat can be recuperated from the reactor via the cooling jackets. In this way, low pressure steam can be produced. The generation of steam can make the tubular reactor a net producer of low pressure steam. Modern high pressure plants use closed cooling water systems to minimise the intake of fresh water for cooling purposes. At the same time, proper condition-ing of the coolcondition-ing water allows maximum protection of the high strength materials used in the process against corrosion.

3.2.2.3 Technical parameters

Product type LDPE LDPE

Reactor type tubular reactor autoclave reactor inner diameter pipe: volume:

25 - 100 mm 250 - 1500 litres Mechanical dimensions

L/D ~ 10000 - 50000

Operating pressure 200 - 350 MPa 100 - 250 MPa Operating temperature 140 - 340 °C 180 - 300 ºC

oxygen and/or organic peroxides organic peroxides 0.2 - 1g/kg PE Initiators

0.2 - 0.5 g/kg PE Conversion to polymer up to 36 % up to 20 % Current maximum

plant capacity

300000 t/yr 200000 t/yr Table 3.4: Technical parameters of LDPE

3.2.2.4 Other ethylene based polymers made by the high pressure proc-ess

Besides LDPE, there are some more plastics produced using the same high pressure technology, such as:

• ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers (EVA)

• ethylene-acrylic acid copolymers (EAA)

• ethylene methacrylic acid copolymers (EMA)

• most grades of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE)

• very low density polyethylene (VLDPE)

• ultra low density polyethylene (ULDPE).

These families of resin are produced in commercial scale high pressure processes. To produce these types of polymers, additional investment is needed, e.g. in corrosion protection, refrigera-tion capacity, extrusion equipment and process units to recycle the comonomers after purifica-tion back into the process.

EVA copolymers are the most important on a volume basis. The total LDPE copolymer market for Europe is estimated at 720 kt/yr. The EVA copolymers volume is 655 kt/yr of which 450 kilotonnes are above 10 wt-% VA).

More information on copolymers can be found in Section 3.3.2

MP/EIPPCB/POL_BREF_FINAL Oktober 2006 43 3.2.3 High density polyethylene

There are two main types of processes used for the production of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and both type 1 (narrow molecular weight distribution) and type 2 (broad molecular weight distribution) HDPE can be produced by these processes:

• the suspension (slurry) process

• the gas phase process.

Besides these two processes, HDPE type 1 can also be produced by a solution process.

The HDPE processes normally use either a Ziegler type (titanium-based) or a Philips type (chromium-based) supported catalyst. Recently, metallocene catalysts have also been intro-duced. In general, the Ziegler catalyst can be used in all these processes to produce type 1 HDPE. The loop reactor which uses isobutane as a diluent, and the gas phase reactor can be operated at higher temperatures than STR suspension processes using a higher boiling solvent and the first two processes are, therefore, more suitable for the production of type 2 HDPE by using chromium catalysts.

The loop reactor processes and the gas phase reactor processes normally have only one reactor, while the STR processes typically have two or more reactors to reach a reasonable plant capac-ity and to have the flexibilcapac-ity to produce type 2 HDPE (broad molecular weight distribution) using a Ziegler catalyst.

A comonomer (butene-1, hexene-1) is used to control the polymer density and hydrogen is used for molecular weight control. Compared to the gas phase process, the slurry processes are lim-ited in their capability of producing lower density polyethylene, because the solubility of the polyethylene in the diluent increases with decreasing density of the polymer. Dissolved polymer in the diluent causes high viscosity and an increased risk of fouling of the reactor and down-stream equipment. The solubility in hexane is higher than in isobutane. The gas phase process does not have the problem with dissolved polymers and can, therefore, produce both HDPE and LLDPE by applying different types of catalysts.

An overview of HDPE processes and parameters is shown in Table 3.5.

Process