Issue 11/2022 - Successful pilot test of continuous polymerization of rare earth cis-butadiene rubber

Recently, the single-active center rare earth metal catalyst for high-cis-type and narrowly distributed cis-butadiene rubber independently developed by the innovation team of China Petrochemical Research Institute recently carried out a 2.
75 kg/h continuous polymerization pilot test in Dushanzi Petrochemical Company, which achieved a successful start-up, completed long-term continuous and stable operation, and obtained important pilot operation process parameters
.

Through the optimization of conditions, the polymerization efficiency of single-center rare earth catalyst is about 20 times that of the current mainstream ternary rare earth catalyst, the content of rare earth cis-butadiene rubber cis-1,4 is greater than 98%, and the relative molecular mass distribution width is adjustable in the range of 2.
0~3.
0, which realizes the scientific research and engineering technology of rare earth rubber catalyst in China to surpass
again.

In this pilot test, rare earth cis-butadiene rubber products with Mooney viscosities of 40, 60 and 80 were developed, which demonstrated the ability of this single-center rare earth catalyst to produce a variety of grades of
high-performance rare earth cis-butadiene rubber.
Compared with Z-N type ternary rare earth catalysts, single-center rare earth catalysts have the characteristics of
ultra-high activity, high cis-1,4 selectivity and narrow relative molecular mass distribution.
In addition, the device does not hang glue during operation, the glue is transported smoothly, and it can still run continuously and stably in the extremely high Mooney viscosity range (greater than 110), which can be used for the development of oil-filled rare earth cis-butadiene rubber and significantly reduce production costs
.
It is foreseeable that the popularization and application of the rare earth catalyst will improve the performance of rare earth cis-butadiene rubber, increase the added value of products, and improve the stability and safety
of production.

It is understood that the team began to carry out the small-scale development of single-center rare earth metal catalysts for cis-butadiene rubber in 2016, gradually completed the screening and optimization of catalysts, and then re-optimized the polymerization conditions and polymerization process through dozens of batch polymerization tests, and finally solved a series of technical problems
restricting the scale-up application of single-center rare earth catalysts.