Patent ID: 7638094
Filing Date: 2009-12-29
Classification: B01J,C08F

Abstract:
1. A continuous process for polymer formation, comprising: feeding an at least one monomer mixture into a lower third of a vertically arranged tubular reactor, polymerizing the at least one monomer by heating the at least one monomer mixture to reaction temperature in the presence of at least one free radical initiator to form a monomer-initiator polymerization mixture, moving the monomer-initiator polymerization mixture through the vertical tubular reactor at a longitudinal linear velocity of from 0.1 to 50 cm/sec, stirring the monomer-initiator polymerization mixture at from 5 to 50 rpm by a stirrer while moving through the vertical tubular reactor, controlling the polymerization mixture temperature while moving through the vertical tubular reactor, forming a polymer mixture, and discharging the polymer mixture from an upper third of the vertical tubular reactor; wherein a ratio of an internal diameter of the vertical tubular reactor to a diameter of the stirrer is in a range from 1.10 to 1.90, the at least one monomer mixture comprises a (meth)acrylate monomer, and the polymerizing is either bulk free-radical homogeneous solution polymerization, or bulk free-radical melt polymerization.