CATALYSIS, KINETICS AND REACTION ENGINEERING

Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 21(8) 850859 (2013)

DOI: 10.1016/S1004-9541(13)60553-4

Modeling and Simulation of Ethylene Polymerization in Industrial

Slurry Reactor Series
MENG Weijuan ()1,2, LI Jianwei ()1,*, CHEN Biaohua ()1 and LI Hongbo
()2
1
2

State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing
100029, China
Yanshan Branch, Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, Beijing
102500, China

Abstract A five-site comprehensive mathematical model was developed to simulate the steady-state behavior of
industrial slurry polymerization of ethylene in multistage continuous stirred tank reactors. More specifically, the effects of various operating conditions (i.e., inflow rates of catalyst, hydrogen and comonomer) on the molecular
structure and properties of polyethylene (i.e., Mw, Mn, polydispersity index (IPD), melt index, density, etc.) are fully
assessed. It is shown that the proposed comprehensive model is capable of simulating the steady-state operation of
an industrial slurry stirred tank reactor series. It is demonstrated that changing the catalyst flow rate, changes simultaneously the mean residence-time in both reactors, which plays a significant role on the establishment of polyethylene architecture properties such as molecular mass and IPD. The melt index and density of polyethylene are
mainly controlled by hydrogen and comonomer concentration, respectively.
Keywords bimodal polyethylene, multiple tanks in series, simulation, polymerization

INTRODUCTION

High polydispersity bimodal polyethylene products

have important applications in areas such as thermoforming and blow molding. To produce this product,
several reactors in series may be utilized. By suitably
adjusting the temperature and concentration of chain
transfer agent (i.e. hydrogen) in each reactor, a bimodal product can be obtained [1-4]. The molecular
mass distribution of the final product may be regulated
by adjusting the relative amounts of polymer produced
in each reactor by changing the residence time in each
stage, using different reactor temperatures.
Several processes can be used for the production
of bimodal polyethylene. Ethylene can be polymerized
in a variety of environments, including liquid or gaseous reactors with little restriction. Slurry polymerization
of ethylene in multiple stages of continuous stirred-tank
reactors (CSTR) using heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta
catalysts is a common process for the commercial
production of high polydispersity bimodal polyethylene.
Simulation models are important tools for the
development and optimization of polymerization
processes because they can describe catalyst performance and polymer properties as a function of polymerization kinetics and process conditions [5-10]. As the
polyolefin industry moves towards the production of
resins with more complex microstructures, these models become essential for process understanding and
product design. Fontes and Mendes [5] developed a
complete dynamic model for continuous slurry ethylene polymerization reactor to predict the production
rates as well as the number and mass molecular mass

averages of the final polymer. Khare et al. [6] used a

polymerization process simulator to describe the
steady-state operation of an industrial slurry reactor
and analyze production rates and certain key molecular properties of the final polymer material [average
molecular mass and polydispersity index (IPD)]. The
model was able to simulate the transient operation of
the polymerization plant so as to suggest modifications of the operation conditions in order to increase
the polymer production rate. Antonio et al. [7] developed
a comprehensive model for the ethylene/1-butene copolymerization in an industrial slurry polymerization
reactor for linear low density polyethylene synthesis.
The model was able to describe the dynamic evolution
of the molecular mass averages, comonomer content,
particle size averages, melt index, and density of the
final polymer resin. Nipun and Sunil [8] developed a
model of slurry polymerization of ethylene in a multistage CSTR to find the effect of stagewise variation of
the partial pressure of ethylene and/or hydrogen on
polymer polydispersity and rate of polymerization.
Only single-site type catalyst was modeled in their
work.
In this paper, a five-site comprehensive mathematical model has been developed to simulate the
steady-state behavior of an industrial bimodal highdensity polyethylene process. In particular, the model
can not only predict the properties of the polymer that
is produced in each reactor but also estimate the properties of the final product. The effects of catalyst flow
rate, hydrogen and ethylene molar ratio, comonomer
and ethylene molar ratio on the polymer molecular
structure and properties were also investigated.

Received 2012-06-28, accepted 2012-12-24.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: lijw@mail.buct.edu.cn

851

Chin. J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 21, No. 8, August 2013

Figure 1 Process flow diagram for the series reactor

1monomer, hydrogen and solvent; 2monomer, comonomer, hydrogen and solvent; 3CSTR; 4flash drum; 5volatile removal;
6centrifugal separator; 7solvent recycle; 8oligomer separation and polymer wet cake drying

2
2.1

MODEL DEVELOPMENT
Modeled series reactor process

In Fig. 1, a schematic representation of an industrial slurry-phase olefin polymerization reactor series

is illustrated. The process consists of two jacketed
CSTRs, where gaseous monomer, comonomer and
hydrogen diffuse in the liquid phase solvent (hexane)
and react at the surface of solid catalyst micrograin,
resulted in the formation of the polymer solids. Raw
materials feed to the first CSTR and the slurry product
is then pumped to the second CSTR, which also receives fresh monomer and solvent. The second reactor
is not fed with fresh catalyst as the catalyst from the
first reactor is sufficient to continue the polymerization
process. The comonomer is 1-butene, and it enters as a
feed stream to the second reactor only. The vapor outlet
from each reactor undergoes cooling and recycles to
the reactor inlet. The slurry stream leaving the second
reactor enters a flash unit for removal of volatiles. The
resulting stream enters a centrifugal separator, which
removes and returns hexane to the reactor inlets.
The temperature in both the reactors needs not be
the same. The hydrogen partial pressure is also different
in two reactors, permitting the production of polymers
with different average molecular mass in the two reactors. This results in a bimodal molecular mass distribution for the final polymer product. Typically,
polyethylene of low molecular mass and high density
are produced in the first reactor of the series, commonly
operated at high hydrogen concentration. On the other
hand, in the second reactor of the series, low hydrogen
and high comonomer concentration result in the production of high molecular mass and low density polyethylene. Typically, industrial slurry-phase CSTRs operate at 80-85 C, pressures of 0.2-0.9 MPa and a polymer-solids concentration of approximately 350 g
polyethylene(L hexane)1.
2.2

Kinetic modeling for Ziegler-Natta catalyst

Heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalyst is popular

among polyolefin catalysts and used for the production over tens of million tons of polyethylene per year

[11, 12]. For heterogeneous Ziegler-Natta catalysis,

even on the same catalyst particle, different active sites
can have different propagation rate constants, which
can give rise to very broad molecular mass distributions [13]. The mechanisms (Table 1) described here
are similar to those outlined by Mcauley et al. [14],
which has been used successfully to describe the behavior of industrial reactors. The absence of a site activation step in the proposed mechanism is explained
by the assumption of the existence of a prepolymerization operational stage before the reactor feeding.
Table 1 Kinetic mechanism of ethylene/1-butene
copolymerization over a Ziegler-Natta catalyst
Process
chain initiation

Equation

P0k

k0 i
+ M i
P1ki
kk

chain propagation

pij
Pnk,i + M j
Pnk+1, j

chain transfer to hydrogen (H2)

kth
Pnk,i + H 2
Dnk + P0k

spontaneous chain transfer

kts
Pnk,i
Dnk + P0k

chain transfer to monomer

tmij
Pnk,i + M j
Dnk + P0k

deactivation

kd
Pnk,i
Dnk + Cdk

2.3

kk

Determination of kinetic parameters

We use the base set of kinetic parameters in the

open literature as initial values in the model and then
apply an iterative methodology to adjust them to match
model predictions with plant data. Adjust the rate constants for chain propagation to match the conversions
of monomer and comonomer. The primary reactions
affecting monomer and comonomer conversions are
those for monomer-monomer and monomer-comonomer
propagations, respectively, due to the high monomer
concentration relative to that of comonomer. Adjust
the rate constant for spontaneous catalyst deactivation
to match the production rate of high density polyethylene (HDPE). Adjust the rate constant for chain
transfer to hydrogen and to monomer to match the
number-average molecular mass produced at each
site type. The detailed procedures were described in
Ref. [6].

852

Chin. J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 21, No. 8, August 2013

Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) was used

to get the molecular mass distribution (MMD) of the
polymer and a statistical algorithm was used to deconvolute the polymer MMD to determine the minimum number of catalyst site types that gives an accurate representation of the molecular mass distributions
generated by Ziegler-Natta catalysts, as well as the
mass fraction and number average molecular mass of
polymer produced by each site type. The consideration
of these site types, each with its respective reactivity,
enables us to model the broad molecular mass distribution of the HDPE accurately. Four product grades
(two parallel and two series configurations) were used
for determining the kinetic parameters. Fig. 2 illustrates the MMD predicted for each site type, as well as
a comparison of the prediction of the overall MMD
with the experimental curve. The results indicate that
a five-site model can accurately describe the molecular mass distribution of this particular sample. In Fig.
3, the effect of the number of different catalyst active
sites on the percentage square error deviation of experimental and predicted MMD values is depicted. It
is evident that as the number of catalyst active sites
increases to five, the percentage deviation error decreases to a minimum value (i.e., 0.009). Table 2 shows
the results of F statistical test of the kinetic parameters.
The multiple correlation index is greater than 0.9 and
the F-statistic is more than ten times of the critical
F-statistic in the confidence region of 99%. The final
kinetic parameters for the five site model are listed in
Table 3.
Table 2

Figure 2 GPC deconvolution results for a representative

HDPE sample from the parallel reactor configuration
plant data;
Mw distribution for different sites;
regressed curve

Figure 3 Effect of the number of catalyst active sites on

the regressed MMD

F statistical test of the kinetic parameters

Number of parameters

Number of degrees of freedom

Multiple correlation index

F-statistic

10F0.05

10F0.01

65

81

0.9333

51.3

15.0

17.7

Table 3

Numerical values of the kinetic rate constants (at 85 C) for a five-site Ziegler-Natta catalyst

initial fraction of active sites (0)

k
0

initiation
propagation

k0ki

/Lmol s

k
kp11

/Lmol s

k
p12

k
1 1
p21 /Lmol s

/Lmol s

k
kp22
/Lmol1s1

chain transfer

kthk

/Lmol s

k
ktm11
k
ktm12
k
ktm21
k
k tm22

ktsk

/s

Site 3

Site 4

Site 5

0.03312

0.2583

0.4158

0.234

0.06517

6478

6478

6478

6478

6478

6478

6478

6478

6478

6478

605

605

605

605

605

4983

4983

4983

4983

4983

154

154

154

154

154

137

41.1

19.1

8.17

3.02

0.00175

0.00175

0.00175

0.00175

0.00175

0.0045

0.0045

0.0045

0.0045

0.0045

0.00175

0.00175

0.00175

0.00175

0.00175

0.0045

0.0045

0.0045

0.0045

0.0045

/Lmol s
/Lmol s

/Lmol s

deactivation kdk /s1

Site 2

/Lmol s

Site 1

1.0810

4.0105

4.0510

4.0105

1.110

4.0105

3.0910

4.0105

8.81104
4.0105

853

Chin. J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 21, No. 8, August 2013

2.4

CSTR model

The mass fraction of Ti in the catalyst is 4.8%,

the total molar fraction of Ti available as active sites is
equal to 40%. The rate of consumption of each
monomer can be calculated by
Nsite N mon
x w
Rpi = kpkji 0,k j Ti Ti [ M i ]s M w,i
(1)
M w,Ti
k =1 j =1
The concentration of sites of type k having a chain
ending in monomer of type 1 or 2, respectively, (i.e. a
copolymer system) is given by

k
0,1
= 0k

k
0,2

0k

k
kp21
[ M1 ]s
k
k
kp21
[ M1 ]s + kp12
[ M 2 ]s
k
kp12
[ M 2 ]s
k
k
kp12
[ M 2 ]s + kp21
[ M1 ]s

(3)

d0k
= kdk 0k
(4)
dt
For a CSTR the residence-time distribution is
1
(5)
E (t ) = exp ( t / )

The mean catalyst residence time is calculated as a

function of the desired solids content in the reactor,
reactor volume, and catalyst feed rate according to [15]
ws,R

(1 + Y )q
o cat

Yield of polymer is calculated by

N mon

0 Rpi dt

Y=

(6)

(7)

i =1

Yoa = Y a E (t a )dt a
0

Y b E (t b )dt b dt a

(8)

The properties of the copolymer phase can be

calculated in a similar fashion as the homopolymer
phase. However, there are several additional concepts
that must be included. Since the properties of the copolymer phase depend on the time the catalyst spends
in the homopolymer reactor, an additional integral
over homopolymer residence time, ta, is necessary.
Secondly, the kinetic rates of polymerization in the
second reactor depend on the number and distribution
of catalyst active sites available after the catalyst
leaves the homopolymer stage. Thus, the final number
of sites the catalyst possesses after the first stage
(homopolymer reactor) must be the initial number of

(9)

Under the conditions of linear addition of long

polymer chains, live polymer termination by chain
transfer or catalyst deactivation under constant reaction
conditions (temperature and concentration), the instantaneous polymer chain length distribution at each
site of a multisite catalyst is well described by the
long-chain exponential approximation to the SchulzFlory most-probable distribution [16]:
E ( nk ) =

( nk )

exp ( n / n k )

(10)

If the instantaneous chain length distribution is

independent of residence-time, the outlet chain length
distribution for a continuous reactor at steady-state is
given by
E ( ni ,o ) =

N sites

Yok ,i E ( nk ,i )

Yoi k =1

(i = a or b) (11)

in which o refers to the outlet. The outlet overall

chain length distribution for a system composed of
two reactors can be calculated as
E (n,o) =

Nsites

1
Yoa

+ Yob

Yok ,a E ( nk ,a ) + Yok ,b E ( nk ,b )
k =1

(12)
The overall molecular-mass distribution for a system
composed of two reactors can be calculated as
E ( M w , o ) = nE ( n, o ) ln(10)

The mean yield of homopolymer in the first reactor is calculated by

Yob = E (t a )

(2)

The concentration of active sites of type k can be

found by

R
=
ws,R 1 ws,R

+
1
P

sites for the second stage (copolymer reactor). Therefore, the mean yield of copolymer in the second reactor is calculated by a double integral:

(13)

If the average chain lengths and compositions at

each site are independent of residence-time and catalyst size, the number-average molecular mass of the
polymer formed in each reactor can be calculated by
1
M ni

N site

Yok ,i

Yoi

k =1

k ,i
n k ,i M w,mon

(i = a or b)

(14)

And the number-average molecular mass of the composite product after two reactors in series is
1
1
=
Mn
Yoa + Yob

Yok ,a
Yok ,b

+
k ,a k ,a
k ,b
k ,b

k =1 n
M
n
M
w,mon
w,mon

Nsites

(15)
If the mass-average chain length and compositions at
each catalyst site is independent of residence time and
catalyst size, the average mass molecular mass of the
polymer formed in each reactor can be calculated according to the following equations:

854

Chin. J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 21, No. 8, August 2013

M wi =

Nsites

k ,i
Yok ,i nwk ,i M w,mon

(i = a or b)

(16)

Yoi k =1
And the mass-average molecular mass of the composite product after two reactors in series is
Mw =

Nsites

1
Yoa

+ Yob

k ,a
k ,b

+ Yok ,b nwk ,b M w,mon

Yok ,a nwk ,a M w,mon

k =1

(17)
The polydispersity index is then calculated by [13]
I PD

M
= w
Mn

Yo2b
Yo1b ( M w 2 / M w1 ) + Yo2b

(19)

And the average comonomer mole fraction (v2) in the

composite product after two reactors in series is

v2 =

(Y

a
o

Yo2b

+ Yo1b ( M w 2 / M w1 ) + Yo2b

(20)

The melt index (IM) of polyethylene can be correlated to the mass-average molecular mass with a
simple power-law function such as [7]

( )

I Mi = M wi

( x)

[ I M ]1/ p = wa [ I Ma ]1/ p + wb [ I Mb ]1/ p

(i = a or b)

(21)

where and x are empirical constants. For bimodal

polyethylene processes, the range of IM is very large
on the order of 103-103 g(10 min)1. It is impossible
to cover the whole range of IM values with a single
expression [17]. Thus, we use the same formula with
different coefficients for calculating the IM of the
product produced in each reactor. The coefficients were
acquired by multi-linear regression of steady-state
plant data. The and x values are 1.73108 and 1.21
in the first reactor, while they are 1.631012 and 2.31
in the second reactor, respectively.
IM of multimodal products can be obtained using
a typical mixing rule with polymer mass fraction and

(22)

where the exponent, p, is 3.5.

In the plant, analysis to measure the density is
typically carried out only for pellets. For bimodal
polyethylene processes, IM of the polymer produced in
each reactor was too high or too low for density
measurements. So we only predict the density of the
composite product after two reactors in series. The
polymer density is calculated using the following
equation [7],

= (1 0.009165 xB0.148895 )

(18)

For long polymer chains the instantaneous copolymer composition is very narrow and distributed
around its mean value. Therefore, for all intents and
purposes, one may characterize the distribution by its
mean value without significant loss of information. In
this work we focus on the calculation of the average
copolymer composition in polymer particles. For a
multisite Ziegler-Natta catalyst, we expect the composition of the copolymer formed at each polymerization
site to remain invariant. The average copolymer composition ( v2b = average comonomer mole fraction in
the copolymer) in the second stage b of a multistage
process is calculated from the integrated yields of each
monomer by
v2b =

individual melt indexes for the polymer produced in

each reactor as inputs [18]:

1.137247 0.014314ln ( M w )

(23)

where xB is the 1-butene mole fraction and M w is the

mass-average molecular mass of the final polymer
material.
3
3.1

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Model predictions vs. plant data

During the reaction, reaction rates are controlled

by the concentration of reactants dissolved in the
polymer surrounding the sites. Gaseous substances are
sorbed only into the amorphous regions of the polymer [14]. For the present simulations, it is assumed
that the amorphous polymer phase is in equilibrium
with the liquid phase and that diffusional effects
within the amorphous phase are negligible. Henrys
law was used to calculate the concentration of monomer, comonomer and hydrogen in the liquid phase,
while Raoults law was applied to the solvent. The
sorption factor i (solid-liquid interface) was assumed
to be unity.
Base case operating conditions for production of
bimodal polyethylene pipe resin M and film resin H in
a series of reactors were taken from plant and shown
in Table 4. The overall molecular mass distribution of
the simulated products is compared to the data of plant
in Figs. 4 and 5. Good agreement between our five-site
model and the industrially produced bimodal polyethylene GPC curve is evident.
The other properties of the simulated products
are compared to the data of plant in Tables 5 and 6.
From a comparison of the model predictions and the
industrial production rate, M w , M n , IM and density
data, it is apparent that the bulk properties of the
polymer produced in the industrial reactor can largely
be explained by the model.
3.2

Effect of the catalyst flow rate (residence time)

As the catalyst particle passes through the reactor

855

Chin. J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 21, No. 8, August 2013

Table 4

Simulation conditions used for the base case bimodal polyethylene

Pipe resin M

Variable
temperature/C
pressure/MPa
3

Film resin H

First reactor

Second reactor

First reactor

Second reactor

85

80

85

80

0.68

0.25

0.68

0.25

reactor volume/m

60

60

60

60

solids fraction/% (by mass)

32.4

32.4

32.4

32.4

nH2 /nC2

8.0

0.30

8.0

0.20

nC4 /nC2

0.012

0.020

catalyst flow rate/gs1

0.17

0.25

diameter of catalyst particle/m

15.7

15.7

ethylene feed flow/kgh1

5300

5300

5300

5300

hydrogen feed flow/kgh1

6.10

0.18

6.8

0.26

solvent feed flow/kgh1

11052

11052

11052

11052

100

10

130

comonomer feed flow/kgh1

number-average chain length-site 1

40

1073

40

839

number-average chain length-site 2

132

3238

132

2586

number-average chain length-site 3

290

8653

290

6590

number-average chain length-site 4

684

22825

684

16868

number-average chain length-site 5

1855

64650

1855

47200

Figure 4 Base case GPC curve fit of bimodal polyethylene

pipe resin M for 2 CSTRs in series
plant data (pipe resin M);
model prediction
Table 5

Figure 5 Base case GPC curve fit of bimodal polyethylene

film resin H for 2 CSTRs in series
plant data (film resin H);
model prediction

Comparison of prediction results and plant data for pipe resin M

First reactor

Item
mean residence time/h
production/th

Second reactor

After two reactors

Plant data

Simulated value

Plant data

Simulated value

Plant data

Simulated value

2.500

2.498

1.250

1.241

5.300

5.296

5.400

5.366

10.7

10.6

Mw

24850

24480

792082

395670

410786

Mn

6300

6109

166165

11372

11826

IPD

3.94

4.01

4.76

34.8

34.7

comonomer content/% (by mole)

0.94

0.46

0.46

IM/g(10 min)1

820

846

0.039

0.36

0.36

0.9479

0.9483

density/gcm

856

Chin. J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 21, No. 8, August 2013

Table 6

Comparison of prediction results and plant data for film resin H

First reactor

Item

Plant data

Second reactor

After two reactors

Simulated value

Plant data

Simulated value

Plant data

Simulated value

mean residence time/h

2.24

2.235

1.150

1.141

production/th1

5.300

5.276

5.430

5.426

10.730

10.702

Mw

21350

22430

581090

307850

301360

Mn

5418

5617

143834

10652

9979

IPD

3.94

3.99

4.04

28.9

30.2

comonomer content/% (by mole)

1.26

0.62

0.62

IM/g(10 min)1

950

941

0.079

0.68

0.68

0.9485

0.9486

density/gcm

Table 7
qcat/gs1

Summary of simulation for the effect of catalyst flow rate

Mean residence time/h

Mean yield (polyethylene)/g(g cat.)1

Mw

Mn

IPD

13986

315920

9606

32.9

14054

12713

389054

11231

34.6

1.7

10775

10505

403401

11617

34.7

2.5

1.24

8654

8768

410786

11826

34.7

2.0

0.98

7330

7585

414851

11944

34.7

0.50

1.4

0.66

5378

5720

420090

12100

34.7

1.00

0.94

0.45

3903

4230

423685

12209

34.7

First reactor

Second reactor

First reactor

Second reactor

0.01

16

10

22850

0.05

5.2

2.7

0.10

3.4

0.17
0.25

system, monomer polymerizes causing polymer to

encapsulate the catalyst which expands and grows into
the resultant polymer particle. In this section, the two
stage reactors were simulated at catalyst flow rate
from 0.01 to 1.0 gs1. The other operating conditions
in Table 4 for production of bimodal polyethylene
pipe resin M were kept the same in each stage, that is,
we assume the mass fraction of solids in the solvent,
polymerization temperature, pressure, hydrogen/ ethylene mole ratio and comonomer/ethylene mole ratio
to be constant. As the catalyst flow rate increases, the
flow rates of ethylene, hydrogen, commoner and solvent
have to increase in order to maintain the reactor pressure and mass fraction of solids in the solvent. This
leads to the reduction of the residence time. Table 7
shows the changes of catalyst mean residence time,
catalyst mean yield, mass average molecular mass
( M w ), number average molecular mass ( M n ) and
polydispersity with increasing the flow rate of catalyst.
The effect of catalyst flow rate on the GPC curves was
shown in Fig. 6. It can be seen that when qcat>0.05
gs1, the polydispersity, M w , M n and MMD of
bimodal polyethylene changed little. On the other
hand, increased catalyst flow rate results in lower
catalyst mean residence time and catalyst mean yields.

Figure 6 Effect of catalyst flow rate on the GPC curves of

bimodal polyethylene produced in 2 CSTR series
catalyst flow rate/gs1: 10.01; 20.05; 30.1; 40.17;
50.25; 60.5; 70.1

The reaction rate of polymerization is dependent

on several parameters such as monomer concentration,
temperature and active site concentration. It is apparent that as the catalyst flow rate increases, active site
concentration increases and so does the polymerization rate. Since the kinetic rates of polymerization in
the second reactor depend on the number and distribution of catalyst active sites available after the catalyst
leaves the homopolymer stage, the properties of the
copolymer phase depend on the time the catalyst
spends in the homopolymer reactor. The catalyst mean

857

Chin. J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 21, No. 8, August 2013

Table 8

Effect of hydrogen to ethylene molar ratio on the molecular mass, IPD and IM of
polyethylene produced after two reactors in series
Hydrogen/ethylene (molar ratio)

Mw

Mn

IPD

IM

0.25

364789

22890

15.9

0.43

0.25

356455

15640

22.8

0.45

0.20

408281

11785

34.6

0.36

10

0.15

496976

9738

51.0

0.24

Number

First reactor

Second reactor

residence time in the first reactor for catalyst flow rate

of 0.01 gs1 is 3 times as long as that for catalyst flow
rate of 0.05 gs1, the effects of catalyst deactivation
may be important, which can cause the change of
number and distribution of catalyst active site. As the
mean residence-time is progressively decreased (total
flow rate increases), catalyst deactivation becomes
less important and the polydispersity changes little.
However, when catalyst feed rate is changed from
0.01 to 1.0 gs1, the catalyst mean yield ratio of the
first reactor to the second reactor decreases from 1.63
to 0.92. It means that the mass fraction of the low
molecular mass homopolymer within the final product
after two reactors in series decreases, while the mass
fraction of the high molecular mass copolymer increases.
This causes the slow increase of M w and change of
GPC curves of the final product.
3.3

Figure 7 Effect of hydrogen to ethylene mol flow rate

ratio on bimodal polyethylene produced in 2 CSTR series
1st reactor, H2/C2H4 = 4; 2nd reactor, H2/C2H4 = 0.25; 1st
reactor, H2/C2H4 = 6; 2nd reactor, H2/C2H4 = 0.25; 1st reactor, H2/C2H4 = 8; 2nd reactor, H2/C2H4 = 0.20; 1st reactor,
H2/C2H4 = 10; 2nd reactor, H2/C2H4 = 0.15

Effect of the hydrogen inflow rate

time, M w of bimodal polyethylene increases, while

It is well known that, in Z-N catalytic olefin polymerization, the hydrogen concentration is employed
to control the melt index of polyolefin, which is related
to its molecular mass [19]. In this section, the two
stage reactors were simulated at hydrogen/ethylene
molar ratio in the first and second reactors of the series
changed from 4.0 to 10 and from 0.15 to 0.25, respectively. The other operating conditions in Table 4 for
production of bimodal polyethylene pipe resin M were
kept the same in each stage, that is, we assume the mass
fraction of solids in the solvent, polymerization temperature, pressure, catalyst flow rate and comonomer/
ethylene molar ratio to be constant. We also assume
that the mean yield of homopolymer in the first reactor is equal to that of copolymer in the second reactor.
The effect of hydrogen to ethylene molar flow rate
ratio on the molecular mass, IPD, IM and MMD of
polyethylene produced after two reactors was shown
in Table 8 and Fig. 7.
As hydrogen is the chain transfer agent, the average molecular mass decreases with the increase of
hydrogen concentration. However, when hydrogen/
ethylene molar flowrate ratio increases in the first reactor and decreases in the second reactor at the same

M n and IM of bimodal polyethylene decrease. It demonstrates that the mass average molecular mass and
melt index of copolymer produced in the second reactor plays a significant role on the mass average molecular mass and melt index of bimodal polyethylene
and the number average molecular mass of homopolymer produced in the first reactor makes contribution to
the number average molecular mass of bimodal polyethylene. Additionally, when hydrogen/ethylene molar
flowrate ratio increases in the first reactor and remains
unchanged in the second reactor, M w and M n of
bimodal polyethylene decrease, and IM of bimodal
polyethylene increases due to an intensification of
hydrogen chain transfer. The higher the hydrogen/ethylene mol ratio of the first reactor to the second reactor is, the broader is the MMD of bimodal
polyethylene.
3.3

Effect of the comonomer inflow rate

Another simulation is carried out varying the

858

Chin. J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 21, No. 8, August 2013

Table 9

Summary of simulation for the effect of comonomer flow rate

1-butene/ethylene (molar ratio)

M wb

M nb

b
I PD

v2b /% (by mole)

v2/% (by mole)

/gcm3

0.00326

862579

183157

4.71

0.25

0.13

0.9552

0.00977

836791

176871

4.73

0.77

0.39

0.9492

0.0195

810657

170571

4.75

1.5

0.76

0.9436

0.0326

798611

167710

4.76

2.48

1.25

0.9378

0.0651

790372

165749

4.77

4.76

2.43

0.9277

0.0977

784716

164399

4.77

6.89

3.55

0.9201

1-butene inlet concentration. The results are depicted

in Table 9. It was observed that the average 1-butene
mole fraction in the copolymer produced in the second
reactor and in the composite product increased with
higher 1-butene to ethylene molar ratio (i.e., the comonomer concentration increases). As expected, polyethylene density decreases with the addition of
1-butene. In industrial practice, this is the main variable manipulated to control polymer density. Increasing 1-butene concentration in the second reactor gives
higher 1-butene incorporation in the copolymer. Also
the copolymer molecular mass is seen to be decreased
by increasing 1-butene concentration. The comonomer
enhances transfer reaction rate. The small effect of the
comonomer concentration on the polydispersity index
can be attributed to the simultaneous reduction in both
mass-average molecular mass and number-average
molecular mass.
4

CONCLUSIONS

A five-site comprehensive mathematical simulation model for the polymerization of ethylene with
multiple site coordination catalysts at steady state in a
process with two CSTRs operating in series has been
developed. The predictions for molecular mass and
polydispersity, melt index, density and average comonomer incorporation are in good agreement with
plant data. On this basis, the effects of catalyst flow
rate, ethylene and hydrogen mol ratio and comonomer
inflow rate on the molecular mass, polydispersity and
polymer properties such as melt index and density
were simulated using this model.
(1) As the catalyst flow rate increases, catalyst
mean residence time and catalyst mean yield decrease,
M w and M n increase, the mass fraction of the low
molecular mass homopolymer decreases, while the
mass fraction of the high molecular mass copolymer
increases.
(2) When hydrogen/ethylene molar flow rate ratio increases in the first reactor and decreases in the
second reactor at the same time, M w of bimodal
polyethylene increases, while M n and IM of bimodal

polyethylene decrease. When hydrogen/ethylene molar

flow rate ratio increases in the first reactor and doesnt
change in the second reactor, M w and M n of bimodal
polyethylene decrease, and IM of bimodal polyethylene increases. The higher the hydrogen/ethylene molar
ratio of the first reactor to the second reactor is, the
broader is the MWD of bimodal polyethylene.
(3) The copolymer molecular mass is decreased
with increasing 1-butene concentration. The addition
of 1-butene results in the decrease of polyethylene
density.
NOMENCLATURE
Cd
Dnk
E
IM
k
[Mi]s
Mw
M
Nsite
Nmon
n
nk
nwk
P0k
Pnk,i
qcat
RPi
t
VR
wf
wTi
ws,R
wi
xTi
Y
Yo
Yo1 , Yo2

0k
v2

normalized concentration of dead sites

normalized concentration of dead chains of length n at site k
generic distribution representation
melt index, g(10 min)1
rate constant, Lmol-1s1
sorbed concentration of monomer i at the catalyst sites, molL1
molecular mass, gmol1
average molecular mass, gmol1
number of sites
number of monomers
chain length
number-average chain length at site k
mass-average chain length at site k
normalized concentration of vacant sites of type k
normalized concentration of sites of type k and chain length
n ending in monomer i
catalyst mass flow rate to reactor, gs1
kinetic rate of mass consumption of monomer i, g(g cat.)1s1
chronological time, s
reactor volume, m3
mass fraction of polymer with different molecular mass
mass fraction of titanium in the catalyst
solids mass fraction in reactor
polymer mass fraction produced in reactor i
fraction of titanium atoms that are catalyst sites, dimensionless
polymer polyethylene yield, g(g cat.)1
mean yield of polymer polyethylene, g(g cat.)1
yield of monomer 1,2 in polymer
normalized zeroth moment of all polymer chains at site k
average comonomer content in polymer (molar fraction)

Chin. J. Chem. Eng., Vol. 21, No. 8, August 2013

density of polymer produced after two reactors in series, gcm3
liquid density in the reactor, kgm3
polymer density in the reactor, kgm3
catalyst mean residence time, s

l
P

Superscripts
a
b
k

first reactor
second reactor
site type

8
9

10

Subscripts
d
i or j
n
p
Ti
ts
th
tm
w
0
1
2

deactivation
monomer type
number-average
propagation
titanium
spontaneous chain-transfer
chain transfer to hydrogen
chain transfer to monomer
mass-average
initiation
ethylene
1-butene

11

12

13

14

15

REFERENCES
1
2
3

4
5

Debras, G., Messiaen, M., Production of polyethylene having a

broad molecular weight distribution, U.S. Pat., 6221982 (2001).
Aliahmed, H., Hagerty, R.O., Process for producing bimodal ethylene polymers in tandem reactors, Eur. Pat. 0503791 (1992).
Ahvenainen, A., Sarantila K., Andtsjoe, H., Takakarhu J., Palmroos,
A., Multi-stage process for producing polyethylene, Eur. Pat.,
0517868 (1992).
Tajima, Y., Nomiyama, K., Nishikitani, Y., Kuroda, N., Matsuura, K.,
Process for preparing ethylene polymers, Eur. Pat., 237294 (1987).
Fontes, C., Mendes, M.J., Modelling and simulation of an industrial
slurry reactor for ethylene polymerization, Lat. Am. Appl. Res., 31
(4), 345-352 (2001).
Khare, N.P., Kevin, C., Seavey, Y.A., Steady-state and dynamic
modeling of commercial slurry high-density polyethylene (HDPE)
processes, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 41 (23), 5601-5618 (2002).
Antonio, G., Mattos, N., Marcelo, F., Modeling ethylene/1-butene

16

17

18

19

859

copolymerizations in industrial slurry reactors, Ind. Eng. Chem.

Res., 44 (8), 2697-2715 (2005).
Nipun, J.S., Sunil, S.B., Simulation of slurry polymerization of ethylene, Int. J. Chem. Reactor Eng., 6 (1), 1-26 (2008).
Pontes, K.V., Cavalcanti, M., Filho, R.M., Embirucu, M., Modeling
and simulation of ethylene and 1-butene copolymerization in solution with a Ziegler-Natta catalyst, Int. J. Chem. Reactor Eng., 8 (1),
1-36 (2010).
Ibrehem, A.S., Hussain, M.A., Ghasem, N.M., Mathematical model
and advanced control for gas-phase olefin polymerization in fluidized-bed catalytic reactors, Chin. J. Chem. Eng., 16 (1), 84-89
(2008).
Zhu, X.H., Guo, Z.F., Cen, W., Mao, B.Q., Ethylene polymerization
using improved polyethylene catalyst, Chin. J. Chem. Eng., 19 (1),
52-56 (2011).
Guo, Z.F., Chen, W., Zhou, J., Yang, H., Novel high performance
Ziegler-Natta catalyst for ethylene slurry polymerization, Chin. J.
Chem. Eng., 17 (3), 530-534 (2009).
Fontes, C.H., Mendes, M.J., Analysis of an industrial continuous
slurry reactor for ethylene-butene copolymerization, Polymer, 46
(9), 2922-2932(2005).
Mcauley, K.B., Macgregor, J.F., Hamielec, A.E., A kinetic model
for industrial gas-phase ethylene copolymerization, AIChE J., 36
(6), 837-850 (1990).
Debling, J.A., Zacca, J.J., Ray, W.H. Reactor residence time distribution effects on the multistage polymerization of olefins. III.
Multi-layered products: Impact polypropylene, Chem. Eng. Sci., 52
(12), 1969-2001 (1997).
Zacca, J.J., Debling, J.A., Ray, W.H. Reactor residence time distribution effects on the multistage polymerization of olefins. II. Polymer properties: Bimodal polypropylene and linear low-density polyethylene, Chem. Eng. Sci., 52 (12), 1941-1967 (1997).
Oh, S.J., Lee, J.S., Park, S.W., Prediction of pellet properties for an
industrial bimodal high-density polyethylene process with
Ziegler-Natta catalysts, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 44 (1), 8-20 (2005).
Wei, G.Y., Wang, J.D., Yang, Y.R., Optimal grade transition based
on residence time distribution of catalyst particles in bimodal polyethylene production process, Journal of Chemical Industry and Engineering (China), 60 (11), 2847-2853 (2009). (in Chinese)
Touloupides, V., Kanellopoulos, V., Pladis, P., Kiparissides, C., Mignon, D., Van-Grambezen, P., Modeling and simulation of an industrial slurry-phase catalytic olefin polymerization reactor series,
Chem. Eng. Sci., 65 (10), 3208-3222 (2010).