Patent ID: 8543242

Claim:
A polyolefin production system comprising: a polymerization reactor configured to polymerize olefin monomer in a hydrocarbon diluent in the presence of a catalyst to produce a product slurry comprising polyolefin particles and hydrocarbon; and a separator vessel configured to separate flashed hydrocarbon from the product slurry to generate a flash gas stream and a recovered polyolefin stream; a purge column configured to purge the recovered polyolefin stream comprising the polyolefin particles and residual hydrocarbon with a purge gas to generate a discharge stream comprising a first portion of the residual hydrocarbon and the purge gas and a polyolefin product stream comprising the polyolefin particles and a second portion of the residual hydrocarbon; a computer configured to calculate an estimated value representing a volatile organic content (VOC) of the polyolefin product stream based on a flow rate of the polyolefin particles flowing through the purge column and a flow rate of the purge gas flowing through the purge column; and a control feature configured to adjust an operating condition of the polyolefin production system based on the estimated value representing the VOC.