Patent 7531618 was granted and assigned to Eastman Chemical Company on May, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The invention is directed to polyester processes that utilizes a pipe reactor in the esterification, polycondensation, or both esterification and polycondensation processes. Pipe reactor processes of the present invention have a multitude of advantages over prior art processes including improved heat transfer, volume control, agitation and disengagement functions.