NOVA Chemicals prepares to commercialize a new, “high activity” catalyst for gas-phase polyethylene processes

30-Nov-2000

NOVA Chemicals Corporation (NCX: NYSE, TSE) announced today the company successfully transitioned its Advanced SCLAIRTECH™ Ziegler-Natta (Z-N) catalyst to its UNIPOL® gas-phase polyethylene (PE) plant in Joffre, AB.

Numerous trials have demonstrated this catalyst formulation is a direct and superior replacement for conventional Z-N catalysts in commercial-scale production facilities.

“We believe this catalyst will outperform existing and recently announced catalyst technologies that are available on a worldwide basis and we are confident this technology will work equally well on other commercially available gas-phase PE processes,” said Dan Boivin, president of NOVA Chemicals Olefins/Polyolefins business. “As another benefit, significant increases in reactor throughput can be realized with minimal retrofitting costs because of improved resin composition.”

According to Daryll Harrison, director of NOVA Chemicals polyolefins research and development, the new catalyst can easily be retrofitted into existing, gas-phase, PE production facilities, and the catalyst itself can be manufactured using typical catalyst manufacturing facilities. Harrison added that a supply route has been established for global PE producers that choose to procure the catalyst rather than manufacture it.

“This NOVACAT™ T catalyst technology is available to selected licensees,” continued Dave Purvis, general manager of NOVA Chemicals licensing business, “and our solid intellectual-property base allows licensees freedom to practice our technology globally. We are, in fact, in discussions with several potential global licensees.”

The catalyst is available to produce Z-N resins with narrow or broader molecular weight distributions (MWD) exemplifying the versatility of this new technology. PE resins with broad MWD are targeted at applications such as geomembrane caps and liners. Resins with narrow MWD show lower hexane extractables and improved clarity for food packaging applications. Initial results indicate hexene film resins produced with the NOVACAT T catalyst are fully competitive with benchmark hexene film resins.

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/421/nova-chemicals-prepares-to-commercialize-a-new-high-activity-catalyst-for-gas-phase-polyethylene-processes.html