Ethylene Polymerization Kinetics with a Heterogeneous Metallocene Catalyst – Comparison of Gas and Slurry Phases

Summary: Ethylene homopolymerizations were executed with a supported Ind2ZrCl2/MAO catalyst using the so‐called Reactive Bed Preparation method. This RBP method combined a slurry polymerization with a gas phase polymerization with the same polymerizing particles, i.e., a reactive bed. Polymerization kinetics were measured with high accuracy and reproducibility. Slurry and gas phase polymerization rates showed the same dependency on monomer bulk concentration. A complexation model has been proposed to describe the non‐first order polymerization rate‐monomer concentration dependence observed. This model also explains the non‐Arrhenius temperature dependence and the observed pressure dependence of the activation energy of the commonly used polymerization rate model: Rp = kp · C* · M. magnified image