Patent ID: 7928162
Filing Date: 2011-04-19
Classification: B01J,C08F,C08J

Abstract:
1. An in-line blending process for plasticized polymers comprising: (a) providing two or more reactor trains configured in parallel and a high-pressure separator downstream fluidly connected to the two or more reactor trains configured in parallel, wherein one or more of the reactor trains produces one or more base polymers and one or more of the reactor trains produces one or more plasticizers; (b) contacting in the two or more reactor trains configured in parallel 1) olefin monomers having two or more carbon atoms 2) one or more catalyst systems, 3) optional one or more comonomers, 4) optional one or more scavengers, and 5) one or more diluents or solvents, wherein at least one of the reactor trains configured in parallel is at a temperature above the solid-fluid phase transition temperature of the polymerization system and a pressure no lower than 10 MPa below the cloud point pressure of the polymerization system and less than 1500 MPa, wherein the polymerization system for each reactor train is in its dense fluid state and comprises the olefin monomers, any comonomer present, any diluent or solvent present, any scavenger present, and the polymer product, wherein the catalyst system for each reactor train comprises one or more catalyst precursors, one or more activators, and optionally, one or more catalyst supports, wherein the one or more catalyst systems are chosen from Ziegler-Natta catalysts, metallocene catalysts, nonmetallocene metal-centered, heteroaryl ligand catalysts, late transition metal catalysts, and combinations thereof, wherein the polymerization system for one or more base polymer reactor trains and one or more plasticizer reactor trains includes more than 60 wt % of the one or more diluents or solvents; (c) forming an unreduced polymer or unreduced plasticizer reactor effluent including a homogeneous fluid phase polymer-monomer mixture in one or more parallel reactor trains and a homogeneous fluid phase plasticizer-monomer mixture in one or more parallel reactor trains; (d) passing the reactor effluents comprising the homogeneous fluid phase polymer-monomer mixture and plasticizer-monomer mixture from each parallel reactor train through the high-pressure separator for product blending and product-feed separation; (e) maintaining the temperature and pressure within the high-pressure separator above the solid-fluid phase transition point but below the cloud point pressure and temperature to form a fluid-fluid two-phase system comprising a plasticized polymer-rich blend phase and a monomer-rich phase; and (f) separating the monomer-rich phase from the plasticized polymer-rich blend phase in the high pressure separator to form a plasticized polymer blend and a separated monomer-rich phase.