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Gas‐Phase Polyethylene Reactors—A Critical Review of Modeling Approaches
Author(s) -
Alves Rita Ferreira,
Casalini Tommaso,
Storti Giuseppe,
McKenna Timothy F. L.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
macromolecular reaction engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.37
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1862-8338
pISSN - 1862-832X
DOI - 10.1002/mren.202000059
Subject(s) - representation (politics) , polymerization , polyethylene , computer science , economies of agglomeration , simple (philosophy) , particle (ecology) , computation , attrition , materials science , statistical physics , phase (matter) , gas phase , process engineering , thermodynamics , chemistry , physics , chemical engineering , engineering , polymer , algorithm , philosophy , dentistry , law , oceanography , composite material , epistemology , political science , medicine , organic chemistry , politics , geology
Different approaches to modeling the gas phase polymerization of ethylene that have been considered in the literature are reviewed. It is shown that while simple, well‐mixed models can give an adequate representation of the average performance of a given polymerization reactor, they do not allow one to analyze certain modeling problems such as the existence of temperature gradients or particle segregation, nor can they be used to treat operational modes such as condensed cooling where there can be up to three different phases in different parts of the reactor. For this, more complex models are required. These can take the form of compartmentalized models or even models based on computation fluid dynamics. However, long computational times can be required to fully exploit these models. Furthermore, significant progress needs to be made if one needs to address important phenomena such as agglomeration or particle attrition during polymerization.