Patent ID: 8128877

Claim:
A manufacturing system for producing polyolefin, comprising: a polymerization reactor configured to polymerize monomer in the presence of a catalyst and diluent to form a slurry comprising polyolefin particles and diluent; a diluent/monomer recovery system configured to separate a majority of the diluent from the slurry discharged from the polymerization reactor and to recycle a first portion of the separated diluent to a feed system for the polymerization reactor without fractionating the first portion; a fractionation system configured to fractionate a second portion of the separated diluent to provide recovered diluent substantially free of monomer; and an extrusion/loadout system configured to extrude and pelletize polyolefin particles recovered from the slurry in the diluent/monomer recovery system to form polyolefin pellets; wherein the manufacturing system is configured to consume less than about 445 kilowatt-hours of energy per metric ton of polyolefin pellets produced based on consumption of electricity, steam, and fuel gas.