System and method for monitoring and controlling a polymerization system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11065595-B2
Application number	US-201916676878-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 7, 2019
Priority date	Sep 20, 2017
Publication date	Jul 20, 2021
Grant date	Jul 20, 2021

Abstract

The present disclosure relates generally to a system having a reactor system with a polymerization reactor and a feed system fluidly coupled to a feed inlet of the reactor. The feed system supplies components to the reactor via the feed inlet, and the reactor has a flow path that continuously conveys the components through the reactor and subjects the components to polymerization conditions to produce a polymer. The system also has an analysis system coupled to the reactor for online monitoring of a particle size of the polymer. Further, the system includes a control system, coupled to the analysis and feed systems, that receives a signal from the analysis system indicative of the monitored particle size of the polymer and adjusts an operating parameter of the feed system to control a flow rate of at least one of the components to the reactor based at least on the signal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A polymerization system, comprising:
a reactor system comprising a polymerization reactor;
a feed system fluidly coupled to a feed inlet of the polymerization reactor, wherein the feed system is configured to supply polymerization components comprising a monomer, a comonomer, a catalyst, and a diluent to the polymerization reactor via the feed inlet, and the polymerization reactor comprises a flow path configured to continuously convey the polymerization components through an interior of the polymerization reactor and configured to subject the polymerization components to polymerization conditions to produce a polymer slurry comprising polymer particles;
an analysis system coupled to the polymerization reactor along the flow path, wherein the analysis system is configured to monitor a particle size of the polymer particles; and
a control system coupled to the analysis system and the feed system, wherein the control system is configured to receive a signal from the analysis system indicative of the monitored particle size of the polymer particles, and is configured to adjust a flow rate of the monomer, the comonomer, the catalyst, the diluent, or any combination thereof in the feed system, in response to the signal.

2. The polymerization system of claim 1 , wherein the analysis system comprises a probe tapped into a wall of the polymerization reactor at a position along the flow path.

3. The polymerization system of claim 2 , wherein the polymerization reactor is a loop slurry reactor, and the probe is tapped into an elbow of the loop slurry reactor to enable the probe to monitor a region of turbulent flow within the flow path.

4. The polymerization system of claim 2 , wherein the probe is operable to perform online monitoring of the particle size via light backscattering or video microscopy.

5. The polymerization system of claim 4 , wherein the probe is operable to perform online monitoring of the particle size via particle vision and measurement (PVM) technology.

6. The polymerization system of claim 4 , wherein the probe is operable to perform online monitoring of the particle size via focused beam reflectance measurement (FBRM) technology.

7. The polymerization system of claim 6 , wherein the probe is configured to measure a chord length distribution of the polymer particles located within a cross-section of the flow path corresponding to a window of the probe.

8. The polymerization system of claim 7 , wherein the signal is the chord length distribution and the control system is configured to determine a particle size distribution of the polymer particles based on the chord length distribution.

9. The polymerization system of claim 6 , wherein the probe comprises a laser configured to emit a beam of light into the flow path, and a window configured to receive the beam of light when the beam of light back scatters off the polymer particles, and wherein the window of the probe is substantially flush with an inner surface of the wall of the polymerization reactor to prevent the probe from disrupting a flow of the polymer slurry.

10. The polymerization system of claim 1 , wherein the analysis system is configured to generate the signal based on a particle size distribution of the polymer particles and wherein the control system is configured to determine a bulk density value of the polymer slurry from the signal and to control the flow rate of the at least one of the polymerization components based on the bulk density value.

11. The polymerization system of claim 10 , wherein the control system is configured to determine the bulk density value using the particle size of the polymer particles and a slurry density value.

12. The polymerization system of claim 1 , wherein the control system is configured to adjust the respective flow rate of the monomer to the polymerization reactor in response to the signal when the control system determines that the signal is indicative of a bulk density of the polymer slurry, a particle size distribution of the polymer particles, an average particle size of the polymer particles, a particle size range of the polymer particles, or any combination thereof, outside of a predetermined range.

13. The polymerization system of claim 1 , wherein the control system is configured to adjust the respective flow rate of the comonomer to the polymerization reactor in response to the signal when the control system determines that the signal is indicative of a copolymer foul or an incipient copolymer foul.

14. The polymerization system of claim 1 , wherein the control system is configured to cause the feed system to adjust the respective flow rate of the catalyst to the polymerization reactor to adjust a bulk density of the polymer slurry when the control system determines that the signal is indicative of the bulk density of the polymer slurry, a particle size distribution of the polymer particles, an average particle size of the polymer particles, a particle size range of the polymer particles, or any combination thereof, outside of a predetermined range.

15. The polymerization system of claim 1 , wherein the control system is configured to cause the feed system to adjust the respective flow rate of the diluent to the polymerization reactor to adjust a residence time of the polymer slurry within the polymerization reactor when the control system determines that the signal is indicative of a bulk density of the polymer slurry, a particle size distribution of the polymer particles, an average particle size of the polymer particles, a particle size range of the polymer particles, or any combination thereof, outside of a predetermined range.

16. The polymerization system of claim 1 , wherein the reactor system comprises a first loop slurry reactor and a second loop slurry reactor in series, the first loop slurry reactor being upstream of the second loop slurry reactor, and the polymerization reactor is the first loop slurry reactor.

17. The polymerization system of claim 1 , wherein the reactor system comprises a first loop slurry reactor and a second loop slurry reactor in series, the first loop slurry reactor being upstream of the second loop slurry reactor, and the polymerization reactor is the second loop slurry reactor.

18. The polymerization system of claim 1 , wherein the reactor system comprises a first loop slurry reactor and a second loop slurry reactor connected in series by a transfer line, the polymerization reactor being the first loop slurry reactor or the second loop slurry reactor, wherein the analysis system comprises a probe tapped into a wall of the transfer line.

19. The polymerization system of claim 1 , wherein the analysis system comprises a probe disposed in an inlet, an outlet, or a conduit of a flashline apparatus.

Assignees

• Chevron Phillips Chemical Co Lp

Inventors

• Schwerdtfeger Eric D
• Hert Daniel G
• Netemeyer Eric J

Classifications

• B01J2219/00051

  Controlling the temperature · CPC title

• B01J19/0006

  Controlling or regulating processes (controlling or regulating in general G05) · CPC title

• B01J2219/00186

  controlling the composition of the reactive mixture · CPC title

• B01J19/1837

  Loop-type reactors · CPC title

• B01J19/245

  placed in series · CPC title