Polymerization of Isobutylene in a Rotating Packed Bed Reactor: Experimental and Modeling Studies

Polymerization of isobutylene (IB) for synthesizing highly reactive polyisobutylene (HRPIB) is characterized by a complicated fast intrinsic reaction rate; therefore, the features of its products exhibit a strong dependence on mixing efficiency. To provide uniform and efficient mixing, a rotating packed bed was employed as a reactor for polymerization of IB. The effects of operating parameters including polymerization temperature (T), rotating speed (N) and relative dosage of monomers and initiating systems ([M]0/[I]0) on number-average molecular weight (Mn) of HRPIB were studied. HRPIB with Mn of 2550 g·mol−1 and exo-olefin terminal content of 85 mol% were efficiently obtained at suitable conditions as T of 283 K, N of 1600 rpm and [M]0/[I]0 of 49. Moreover, the Mn can be regulated by changing T, N and [M]0/[I]0. Based on the presumptive-steady-state analysis method and the coalescence–redispersion model, a model for prediction of the Mn was developed and validated, and the calculated Mn values agreed well with experimental results, with a deviation of ±10%. The results demonstrate that RPB is a promising reactor for synthesizing HRPIB, and the given model for Mn can be applied for the design of RPB and process optimization