Patent attributes
The present invention concerns a process and an apparatus for continuous polymerisation of olefin monomers in a cascade of polymerisation reactors. According to the process, an olefin monomer is polymerised first in slurry phase in an inert hydrocarbon diluent in at least one loop reactor and then, subsequently, in gas phase in at least one gas phase reactor. According to the invention, a polymer slurry is continuously withdrawn from the loop reactor and optionally concentrated. The concentrated slurry is conducted to a high pressure flash unit in order to remove the remaining fluid phase, and fed to the gas phase reactor. With the process described in this invention, it is possible to produce bimodal polyethylene with good properties. The operation of the process is stable because of the truly continuous operation.
