Patent ID: 8067512

Claim:
A monomer/solvent separation and recycle process for a continuous homogenous polymerization process comprising: providing one or more series or parallel homogenous polymerization reactors yielding one or more high-pressure dense fluid reactor effluent streams and a downstream gravimetric separator fluidly connected to the one or more reactors; pressurizing a polymer-lean stream from the gravimetric separator to form a high-pressure polymer-lean recycle stream; splitting the high-pressure polymer-lean recycle stream into two high-pressure polymer-lean recycle streams; heating one of the high-pressure polymer-lean recycle streams to form a heated high-pressure polymer-lean recycle stream; combining the heated high-pressure polymer-lean recycle stream with the one or more high-pressure reactor effluent streams to form a heated high-pressure reactor effluent mixed stream; passing the heated high-pressure reactor effluent mixed stream through a pressure let-down valve to form a heated low-pressure reactor effluent mixed stream; and passing the heated low-pressure reactor effluent mixed stream through the gravimetric separator to form the polymer-lean stream for recycle and a polymer-rich stream for further processing.