Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
removed from the reactor and fed to a separation vessel which is main-
tained at atmospheric pressure. The reaction temperature is controlled by
cooling through the reactor walls and by removing propylene vapor, con-
densing it, and returning the liquid to the polymerizer. Propylene is poly-
merized by this method in a cylindrical reactor with diameter 0.5 m and
height 2 m. To keep the temperature constant at 70
C in this case, it is
found necessary to remove 20% of the exothermic process heat by taking
off and condensing propylene vapor. A larger reactor (1-m diameter and
4-m height) is to be run at the same temperature and rate of polymeriza-
tion (moles monomer/volume/time) as the smaller unit. What fraction of
the process heat of the larger reactor must be accounted for by removing
propylene, condensing it, and returning the liquid to the vessel?
References
[1] P.J. Hoftyzer, Appl. Polym. Symp. 26 (1975) 349.
[2] J.P.A. Wallis, R.A. Ritter, H. Andre, AIChE J. 21 (1975) 691.
[3] O. Levenspiel, Chemical Reaction Engineering, Wiley, New York, 1962.
