Support designed for polymerization processes

Abstract

This chapter aims to discuss some important technical aspects of the commercial support related to each catalyst technology toward the production of different polyolefin grades. It approaches several industrial factors that are defined by the fine tuning between support and catalyst preparation, such as the catalyst fragmentation, the control of the final particle morphology and the morphological replication phenomena, the heat and mass transfer limitations during the polymerization reaction, and the uses of prepolymerization stage. The understanding of these parameters and the limits of the polymerization processes are the first step for designing a suitable support for a heterogeneous catalyst. Aspects such as chemical composition of the support, its surface characteristics, morphology (surface area, particle size, particle size distribution, and porosity), mechanical strength, and other characteristics of relevance for the two most common supports in the polyolefin industry—MgCl2 and SiO2—are discussed as well.