The AVN Blog

A novel family of polymers with a polyolefin backbone was being produced in small batches at laboratory scale by a customer.  AVN undertook a process development project to investigate the effects of a number of process variables on the polymerproperties. A semi-continuous process was instituted, which allowed the production of multiple kilograms of product… Read More

AVN Manager of Laboratories Brooke Albin authored “Chapter 1: Crystallization” in the recently published Integration and Optimization of Unit Operations: Review of Unit Operations from R&D to Production: Impacts of Upstream and Downstream Process Decisions. This book, edited by Barry A. Perlmutter of Perlmutter… Read More

A reaction system consisting of two fixed-bed catalyst reactors in series was design and constructed for use in trickle-bed operation. The reactors were each about 1 meter long and 5 cm in diameter, with internal multipoint thermocouples. The reactors were valved to allow their individual operation as needed. This unit allowed operation of the… Read More

A catalyst test unit was constructed to evaluate the long-term performance of catalysts in a fixed-bed reactor. Two parallel reactors were installed with the capability of 24/7 operation unattended, with both liquid and gas feeds. Gas and liquid products were collected and analyzed on regular schedule to track catalyst performance. These… Read More

A customer had conceived of a series of potential new polymer products that could be produced by a liquid phase polymerization. AVN set up laboratory equipment to perform the polymerization and carried out several batch runs. Key steps included addition of the required amount of initiator, generation of the desired… Read More