(363b) A Purge Bin Model for the Recovery of Polyolefins
AIChE Annual Meeting
2016
2016 AIChE Annual Meeting
Innovations of Green Process Engineering for Sustainable Energy and Environment
Integrated Process Engineering and Economics Analysis
Tuesday, November 15, 2016 - 2:42pm to 3:04pm
After the reactions of monomer (and co-monomer) over a catalyst in the presence of inerts (including a condensing agent) in a gas phase reactor, the product polymer is generated in solid particle form. These solid particles contain a sizable amount of condensing agent, monomer, and undesired species that need to be removed before the polymer can be sent to downstream units for processing and shipment. The removal of the hydrocarbons and impurities is done by counter-currently contacting the polymer particles with stripping nitrogen in a tower called the product purge bin, which can be challenging to model accurately.
This work focuses on the development of a practical model that can capture the major characteristics of the polyethylene product recovery process in the purge bin so they can be easily incorporated into Aspen Plus. The model can be applied to polyolefins (polyethylene, polypropylene) production to increase capacity, optimize performance, and guide plant operations to achieve sustainability targets.