From the lab bench to the plant: how to commercialize a metallocene catalyst?

In order to apply metallocene catalysts for the polymerization of ethylene in the commercial “slurry loop process” it is necessary to heterogenize the homogeneous catalysts and to produce resins with attractive properties. A solution to these problems is the self-immobilization of ω-alkenyl functionalized catalysts that can produce polyethylenes with evenly distributed ethyl branches in the polymer chain without a comonomer. The new resin is produced at Chevron Phillips Company, USA, and has the trade name mPact.