An Overview of Reactor Fouling and Factors Affecting it in the polyethylene slurry process

Document Type : compile

Authors

1 Academic staff of engineering faculty of Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute

2 Department of Polymerization Engineering, Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute (IPPI), Tehran, Iran

10.22063/basparesh.2025.3696.1708

Abstract

Today, polyethylene is one of the most widely used polyolefins in the world, which has many applications in various industries such as parts production, automotive manufacturing, storage tanks, and household appliances due to its unique properties. Different processes such as slurry, gas phase, and solvent processes are used to produce polyethylene. The slurry process in series or parallel reactors is one of the most common polyethylene production processes due to the ease of production compared to other processes. The slurry process includes a polymerization media, catalyst, cocatalyst, ethylene monomer, comonomer, and a molecular mass control agent (hydrogen). One of the problems that most slurry units for polyethylene production face is fouling of the internal surface of the polymerization reactors. Reactor fouling is a phenomenon that, by forming a polymer layer on the internal surface of the reactor and heat exchangers, reduces the rate of heat transfer through the cooling water to the reactor wall and disrupts the performance of the heat exchangers and the reactor. During the polymerization process, fouling is formed on the internal surface of the reactor for various reasons, such as lack of precise control of the reaction temperature, the presence of impurities in the input feed, the microstructure of the catalyst, and the polymerization conditions. In this article, the factors affecting the formation of fouling in the slurry process are reviewed and solutions for reducing it in the slurry process of polyethylene production are proposed.
 

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Main Subjects

References

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Basparesh
Volume 15, Issue 2 - Serial Number 55
September 2025
Pages 69-76

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