Hydrogenation of polybutadiene at high pressure and related PVT behavior

M. MENOSSI; J.M. MILANESIO; A.E. CIOLINO; L.M. QUINZANI; M.S. ZABALOY

Villa Carlos Paz

Conferencia; EQUIFASE 2018 - XI Iberoamerican Conference on Phase Equilibria and Fluid Properties for Process Design; 2018

IPQA-CONICET-UNC

Linear low-density polyethylene of low polidispersivity (PD) index could be obtained by hydrogenating low PD index polybutadienes (PBs). In conventional hydrogenation processes, the system always presents, at least, two fluid phases during the reaction progress. The presence of an interphase implies lower mass transfer rates. This could be overcome by using a supercritical fluid as reaction medium, so that the hydrogenation process occurs, in principle, under single fluid phase conditions [1]. The goals of this work are: (1) to find the conditions under which a number of ?PB+solvent mixture+H2? systems (no catalyst) are homogeneous; and (2) to carry out the hydrogenation of PB under the single fluid phase conditions previously identified. With regard to goal # (1), we obtained in this work new experimental data for the system n-pentane (C5) + dimethyl ether (DME) + H2 + PB and, and with regard to goal # (2), we performed hydrogenation experiments under conditions not covered in a previous preliminary work [2].