Patent ID: 7939610

Claim:
A continuous process for producing propylene based polymers with broadened molecular weight and/or composition distribution in a homogeneous polymerization system, comprising: (a) providing a tubular, a loop or a stirred tank reactor with one or more feed entry ports; (b) feeding to the reactor through the one or more feed entry ports one or more reactor feed streams comprising: 1) propylene and optionally one or more other olefin monomers; 2) one or more catalyst systems; 3) optional one or more scavengers; 4) optional one or more diluents or solvents; and 5) combinations thereof, wherein the reactor is at a temperature above the solid-fluid phase-transition temperature of the polymerization system and up to 140° C. 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 the reactor is in its dense fluid state and comprises the propylene and the optionally one or more other olefin monomers, any diluent or solvent present, any scavenger present, and the polymer product, wherein the one or more catalyst systems comprise one or more catalyst precursors, one or more catalyst activators, and optionally, one or more catalyst supports, wherein the one or more catalyst precursors are chosen from metallocene catalysts, non-metallocene metal-centered, heteroaryl ligand catalysts, and late transition metal catalysts; and (c) forming a polymer reactor effluent including a homogeneous fluid phase polymer-monomer mixture in the reactor, wherein the reactor includes a means for minimizing back-mixing of the polymerization system to create a polymer concentration gradient of 20 wt % or more, and wherein the polymer concentration gradient is defined as the polymer concentration in the reactor effluent minus the polymer concentration in a first reactor zone of a baffled reactor or at 5% of the reactor length downstream of the feed entry port closest to the reactor head of a baffle-free reactor, and wherein the Mw/Mn of polymer product is greater than 2.3, and wherein the residence time in the reactor is from 2 minutes to 30 minutes.