Process to form oil containing ethylene-based polymers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10370471-B2
Application number	US-201515521843-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 18, 2015
Priority date	Dec 29, 2014
Publication date	Aug 6, 2019
Grant date	Aug 6, 2019

Abstract

The invention provides a process to form a composition comprising at least one ethylene-based polymer and at least one oil, said process comprising the following: polymerizing a mixture comprising ethylene, and optionally one or more comonomers, in a reactor system, comprising at least one reactor and at least one mixer, located downstream from the reactor, to form the ethylene-based polymer; and wherein the oil is added to the ethylene-based polymer upstream of the mixer. The invention also provides a reactor system for a process to form a composition comprising at least one ethylene-based polymer and at least one oil, said reactor system comprising at least one reactor, at least one mixer, and an oil feed into the ethylene-based polymer, and wherein the oil feed is located after the reactor and before the mixer.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process to form a composition comprising at least one ethylene-based polymer and at least one oil, said process comprising the following:
polymerizing a mixture comprising ethylene, and optionally one or more comonomers, in a reactor system, comprising at least one reactor and at least one mixer, located downstream from the reactor, to form the ethylene-based polymer; wherein
the oil is added to the ethylene-based polymer upstream of the mixer,
the oil has a volatile fraction, at 400° C. and atmospheric pressure, of less than or equal to 2.0 wt %, based on the total weight of the oil,
the mixture further comprises a polymerization solvent,
the reactor system comprises a line for recycled polymerization solvent,
the recycled polymerization solvent is re-introduced into the at least one reactor, and
the difference between the temperature of the oil and the temperature of at least one reactor (T oil −T reactor ) is from 50° C. to 150° C.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the mixer is a static mixer.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the polymerization is a solution polymerization.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the at least one reactor is a continuous stirred tank reactor or a Loop reactor.

5. The process of claim 1 , wherein the reactor system comprises two reactors.

6. The process of claim 5 , wherein the reactor system comprises a stirred tank reactor followed by a Loop reactor.

7. The process of claim 1 , wherein the ethylene-based polymer is an ethylene/α-olefin interpolymer.

8. The process of claim 7 , wherein the ethylene/α-olefin interpolymer is an ethylene/α-olefin/diene interpolymer.

9. A process to form a composition comprising at least one ethylene-based polymer and at least one oil, said process comprising the following:
polymerizing a mixture comprising ethylene, and optionally one or more comonomers, in a reactor system, comprising at least one reactor and at least one mixer, located downstream from the reactor, to form the ethylene-based polymer; wherein
the oil is added to the ethylene-based polymer upstream of the mixer; and

the difference between the temperature of the oil and the temperature of at least one reactor (T oil −T reactor ) is from 50° C. to 150° C.

10. The process of claim 9 , wherein:
the oil has a volatile fraction, at 400° C. and atmospheric pressure, less than or equal to, 2.0 wt %, based on the total weight of the oil,
the mixture further comprises a polymerization solvent,
the reactor system comprises a line for recycled polymerization solvent, and

the recycled polymerization solvent is re-introduced into the at least one reactor.

11. The process of claim 9 , wherein the reactor system comprises two reactors.

12. The process of claim 9 , wherein the ethylene-based polymer is an ethylene/α-olefin interpolymer.

Assignees

• Dow Global Technologies Llc

Inventors

• Karjala Thomas W
• Rubalcaba Jorge
• Madenjian Edward O
• Hypolite Curvel
• Jain Pradeep

Classifications

• C08F2/04

  Polymerisation in solution (C08F2/32 takes precedence) · CPC title

• C08L23/16

  Ethylene-propylene or ethylene-propylene-diene copolymers · CPC title

• C08L91/00

  Compositions of oils, fats or waxes; Compositions of derivatives thereof · CPC title

• C08F6/00

  Post-polymerisation treatments (C08F8/00 takes precedence; of conjugated diene rubbers C08C) · CPC title

• C08F6/003

  from polymer solutions, suspensions, dispersions or emulsions without recovery of the polymer therefrom · CPC title