Fast Catalyst Ratio Estimate in Gas Phase Polyethylene Dual Catalyst System

One approach used in the industry to improve the properties of polyethylene is to use multi-reactor with a single catalyst or multiple catalysts in a single reactor. In the latter case, two catalysts with distinct kinetics are selected to achieve the desired product properties. Such mixed catalyst systems enable tailored and advantageous properties at the cost of more challenging process control, because the ratio of the two catalysts serves as an additional manipulated variable. A fast method to estimate the ratio of active catalysts using headspace gas chromatography measurements is proposed here. In this method, a small perturbation in the feed rate is introduced to induce transient responses in the gas phase concentration. Ideally, with known responses from each individual catalyst, the active catalyst ratio can be estimated. To demonstrate this concept, a process model is developed in Aspen Plus. A set of dynamic simulation is performed to understand the responses of each catalyst and the mixed catalyst system, to changes in feed comonomer concentration. The results demonstrate that this method has significantly faster responses compared to feedback from bulk polymer properties and induces minimal process upset or product off-spec due to small perturbations in a short period of time.