METHOD FOR MINIMIZING THE TRANSITION TIME FROM ONE QUALITATIVE STATE OF THE POLYMER TO ANOTHER QUALITATIVE STATE OF THE POLYMER IN A POLYMERISATION APPARATUS

摘要

The present invention relates to a method for reducing the transition time and/or the polymer waste being out of the specification during the change from a first polymer grade to a second polymer grade in a continuous polymerization process conducted in a polymerization plant, wherein - the polymerization plant comprises at least one back-mixing reactor, - at least one monomer and at least one processing agent selected from the group consisting of catalysts, co-catalysts, polymerization initiators, co-monomers, chain-transfer agents, branching agents, solvents and arbitrary combinations of two or more of the aforementioned agents are added before and/or during the polymerization process into the at least one back-mixing reactor, wherein the concentration of one or more of the at least one added processing agent in the feed introduced into the at least one back-mixing reactor is varied as a function of time from a first value associated with the first polymer grade to a final value associated with the second polymer grade, - the first polymer grade and the second polymer grade are one or more parameters related to the molecular weight of the polymer to be produced and/or one or more parameters related to the composition of the polymer to be produced and/or one or more parameters related to the structure of the polymer to be produced and/or one or more parameters related to the amount of the polymer to be produced, wherein during the variation of the concentration of the at least one added processing agent from the first value to the final value one or more intermediate values are adjusted, wherein at least one, preferably the majority and more preferably all of the one or more intermediate values are closer to the final value than to the first value, wherein the absolute difference between the at least one, preferably each of the majority and more preferably each of all of the one or more intermediate values from the first value is greater than the absolute difference between the final and the first value, and wherein the one or more intermediate values are maintained for a time which is calculated on the basis of only residence time in the at least one back-mixing reactor and steady-state correlations between input and output of the reactor and/or of the polymerization plant.