Basell introduces trademark - Spherizone - for new PP manufacturing process
"With its multi-zone circulating reactor, the Spherizone process is a significant step forward in polymerization technology that generates properties beyond those produced in any other PP manufacturing process," said Anton de Vries, President of Basell Research & Development.
First envisioned in its current layout in 1998, the new technology has moved forward to commercial production in a relatively short period of time. Following testing in Basell's Ferrara pilot plant, the new process has now been commercialised in a 160 KT unit at Brindisi, Italy that came on-stream in August.
"It has been 20 years since Basell's Spheripol technology began to revolutionise the way polypropylene was produced," said de Vries. "There has been a lot of improvement but the basic manufacturing technology has remained the same, a continuous circulating loop encompassing a single polymerisation zone. The multi-zone circulating reactor process changes all that by applying catalytic cracker technology."
The new technology facilitates the improvement of products for traditional market applications such as BOPP film, packaging in general, fibres, consumer goods and the automotive industry as well as for new applications replacing other materials.
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