This application claims priority to Taiwan Application Serial Number 111133238, filed on Sep. 1, 2022, which is incorporated herein by reference.
The present application relates to a polymerization vessel. More particularly, the present application provides a polymerization vessel with a specific cooling flow channel and a method for manufacturing thereof, and the polymerization vessel has excellent heat removal efficacy.
With the development of material science, polymer materials with easy processing, light weight and excellent mechanical properties are widely used. Polyvinyl chloride is a commonly used polymer material because it has a simple production process and can be used to easily produce various types of products by general blending and molding.
In general, the preparation of polyvinyl chloride is carried out by the polymerization reaction in a polymerization vessel. The reaction heat generated by the polymerization reaction is removed by introducing a cooling fluid. As volumes of the polymerization vessel are larger, more reaction heat is generated, and therefore heat removal efficacy of the polymerization vessel is continuously improved. In the conventional polymerization vessel, an intercepting plate and a jacket plate used to separate flow channels are disposed outside the vessel body to form a jacket structure, such that the cooling fluid can be introduced to remove the reaction heat. However, a gap is easily presented between the intercepting plate and the jacket plate, thereby generating by-pass defects of the cooling fluid in the flow channel, and further the heat removal efficacy of the cooling channel is lowered.
Accordingly, there is an urgent need to provide a polymerization vessel and a method for manufacturing the same to improve the defects of the conventional polymerization vessel.
Therefore, an aspect of the present application is to provide a polymerization vessel. The polymerization vessel includes a cooling channel with a specific structure, and thereby the by-pass defects of the conventional cooling channel can be prevented. Therefore, the heat removal efficacy can be efficiently enhanced.
Another aspect of the present application is to provide a method for manufacturing a polymerization vessel. A vessel body of the polymerization vessel is subjected to an excavation process to form the aforementioned cooling channel with the specific structure, thereby efficiently solving the by-pass defects, and further the heat removal efficacy of the polymerization vessel can be enhanced.
According to an aspect of the present application, a polymerization vessel is provided. The polymerization vessel comprises a vessel body, at least one shell plate, at least one fluid inlet and at least one fluid outlet. The vessel body includes a vessel wall and a plurality of partition walls. Each of the partition walls protrudes from an interior surface of the vessel wall, and the partition walls and the vessel wall are integrally formed. The at least one shell plate joints each adjacent two of the partition walls, and at least one flow channel is defined by each adjacent two of the partition walls, the vessel wall and the at least one shell plate. The at least one fluid inlet passes through the vessel wall, and the at least one fluid inlet communicates with the at least one flow channel in one-to-one manner. The at least one fluid outlet passes through the vessel wall, and the at least one fluid outlet communicates with the at least one flow channel in one-to-one manner.
According to some embodiments of the present application, the polymerization vessel further comprises a metallic covering layer. The metallic covering layer is disposed on a surface of the at least one flow channel, and the metallic covering layer is formed from a material with a lower fouling factor than materials of the vessel body and the at least one shell plate.
According to some embodiments of the present application, the aforementioned metallic covering layer includes a nickel layer.
According to some embodiments of the present application, a thickness of the nickel layer is not less than 0.01 mm.
According to some embodiments of the present application, the at least one shell plate covers each adjacent two of the partition walls, and each adjacent two of the at least one shell plate do not overlap in a direction perpendicular to an axis of the vessel body.
According to some embodiments of the present application, there is no a gap between each adjacent two of the at least one shell plate
According to some embodiments of the present application, an inner surface of the at least one shell plate is coplanar to an inner surface of each of the partition walls.
According to some embodiments of the present application, the polymerization vessel further comprises at least one intercepting tube. The at least one intercepting tube is disposed in the vessel body, and each of the at least one intercepting tube extends along an axis of the vessel body. Each of the at least one intercepting tube comprises an outer tube, an inner tube and a plurality of rib plates. The inner tube is sleeved in the outer tube. The rib plates are disposed between the outer tube and the inner tube.
According to some embodiments of the present application, the outer tube is a nickel tube, and the inner tube is a stainless steel tube.
According to another aspect of the present application, a method for manufacturing a polymerization vessel is provided. In the method for manufacturing a polymerization vessel, an excavation process is firstly performed to an interior surface of a vessel body of the polymerization vessel to form at least one spiral flow channel. Each of the at least one spiral flow channel includes a plurality of grooves and a plurality of partition walls, and each one of the grooves is located between adjacent two of the partition walls. Then, a shell plate is respectively covered on each of the grooves so as to subject each of the at least one spiral flow channel to be closed. The shell plate is jointed to the adjacent two of the partition walls.
According to some embodiments of the present application, the shell plate merely covers one of the grooves along a direction perpendicular to an axis of the vessel body.
According to some embodiments of the present application, the shell plate covers the adjacent two of the partition walls, and there is no a gap between the shell plate and adjacent shell plate.
According to some embodiments of the present application, an inner surface of the shell plate is coplanar to inner surfaces of the adjacent two of the partition walls.
According to some embodiments of the present application, after the operation of covering the shell plate on the grooves, the method further comprises forming a metallic covering layer on a surface of each of the at least one spiral flow channel.
According to some embodiments of the present application, the metallic covering layer is formed from a material with lower fouling factor than materials of the vessel body and the shell plate.
According to some embodiments of the present application, after the operation of covering the shell plate on the grooves, the method further comprises performing an electroplating process to each of the at least one spiral flow channel so as to subject a surface of each of the at least one spiral flow channel to be equipped with a nickel layer.
According to some embodiments of the present application, the method further comprises disposing at least one intercepting tube in the vessel body. The at least one intercepting tube extends along a direction parallel to an axis of the vessel body. Each of the at least one intercepting tube comprises an outer tube, an inner tube and a plurality of rib plates. The inner tube is sleeved in the outer tube. The rib plates are disposed between the outer tube and the inner tube. The outer tube, the inner tube and the rib plates are jointed together without a welding process.
According to yet another aspect of the present application, a method for manufacturing a polymerization vessel is provided. In the method for manufacturing a polymerization vessel, an excavation process is firstly performed to an interior surface of a vessel body of the polymerization vessel to form at least one spiral flow channel. Each of the at least one spiral flow channel includes a plurality of grooves and a plurality of partition walls, and each one of the grooves is located between adjacent two of the partition walls. Then, a shell plate is respectively covered on each of the grooves so as to subject each of the at least one spiral flow channel to be closed. The shell plate is jointed to the adjacent two of the partition walls to form a uniform inner surface of the polymerization vessel. After the shell plate is covered, an electroplating process is performed to each of the at least one spiral flow channel so as to subject a surface of each of the at least one spiral flow channel to be equipped with a nickel layer
According to some embodiments of the present application, the method further comprises disposing at least one intercepting tube in the vessel body. The at least one intercepting tube extends along a direction parallel to an axis of the vessel body. Each of the at least one intercepting tube comprises an outer tube, an inner tube and a plurality of rib plates. The inner tube is sleeved in the outer tube. The rib plates are disposed between the outer tube and the inner tube. The outer tube, the inner tube and the rib plates are jointed together without a welding process.
According to some embodiments of the present application, the outer tube is a nickel tube, the inner tube is a stainless steel tube, and the rib plates are stainless steel plates.
In the polymerization vessel and the method for manufacturing the same of the present application, the vessel body of the polymerization vessel is subjected to the excavation process and covered with the shell plates to form the closed cooling channel on the interior surface of the vessel body. The structure of the cooling channel can efficiently prevent the conventional by-pass defects, such that the heat removal efficacy of the polymerization vessel is improved. Moreover, the nickel layer is disposed on the surface of the cooling channel to inhibit the fouling, lower the fouling factor and further maintain the heat transfer coefficient of the cooling channel for a long-term. Accordingly, the heat removal efficacy of the polymerization vessel is further enhanced, and service life thereof is prolonged. Furthermore, the polymerization vessel of the present application can be equipped with the intercepting tubes having a structure of double tube to enhance the heat removal efficacy of the polymerization vessel. In addition to enhance the heat removal efficacy of the polymerization vessel, the specific structure of the cooling channel and the double tube structure of the intercepting tubes of the present application facilitate to enhance the compressive strength of the polymerization vessel. Therefore, the present application can meet the requirements for reaction heat management and high pressure resistance of a large-scale polymerization vessel.
The invention can be more fully understood by reading the following detailed description of the embodiment, with reference made to the accompanying drawings as follows:
Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.
Unless otherwise indicated herein, the term “inner surface” described below of the present application refers to a surface of a member which is close to an axis of the polymerization vessel. In other words, the inner surface refers to a side facing a containing space of the polymerization vessel. Accordingly, an outer surface relative to the inner surface refers to a surface closing to an outer of the polymerization vessel.
Referring to
The polymerization vessel 200 includes a vessel body 210, an inlet 213 for a cooling fluid, an outlet 211 for the cooling fluid, a discharging port 215 and a mixing unit 220. The arrangements of the inlet 213 and the outlet 211 for the cooling fluid are well known to one skilled in the art rather than focusing or mentioning them in details. However, it should be noted that although numbers of the inlet 213 and the outlet 211 for the cooling fluid illustrated in
Referring to
In some embodiments, there are no specific limitations to the excavation process performed to the vessel body 210, and suitable excavation processes can be adopted to form the spiral flow channel depending on materials of the vessel body 210. For example, mechanical cutting methods and equipment can be used to form the spiral flow channel. In other examples, the spiral flow channel can also be formed by direct mold casting method to further enhance the jointing strength between the partition wall 210a and the vessel body 210. There are no specific limitations to the structure of the spiral flow channel, and the dimensions and configurations of the spiral flow channel can be designed according to the heat removal efficacy and the requirements of pressure resistance of the polymerization vessel 200. In some examples, an excavation depth (i.e. excavating along a direction perpendicular to the axis) of the excavation process may be 10 mm to 50 mm, an excavation width (i.e. excavating along a direction parallel to the axis) may be 50 mm to 150 mm, and a width of the partition wall 210a may be 8 mm to 20 mm.
In some embodiments, one or more spiral flow channels can be formed on the interior surface of the vessel body 210 by the excavation process. When the number of the spiral flow channel is one, the spiral flow channel extends continuously and spirally on the interior surface of the vessel body 210. When the number of the spiral flow channels is multiple, each of the flow channels extends independently and spirally along the axis of the vessel body 210. It can be realized that the aforementioned inlet 213 and the outlet 211 for the cooling fluid can be disposed according to the number of the spiral flow channel. In
Referring to
Although there is no gap between the two shell plates 210b covering the adjacent grooves illustrated in
In order to efficiently solve the conventional by-pass defects, the two adjacent shell plates 210b do not overlap each other in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the vessel body 210, and therefore each of the grooves shown in
Continuously Referring to
Referring to
The intercepting tube 340 can be fabricated by cold shrinking assembly, heat shrinking assembly, other suitable methods or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, the joint of the outer tube 341 and the rib 345 of the intercepting tube 340 of the present application excludes a welding process, and therefore the deformation and cracking of the intercepting tube 340 induced by the heat energy applied by welding can be prevented. Although the number of the intercepting tubes 340 illustrated in
In some embodiments, the outer tube 341 can be formed from nickel metal and/or nickel alloy, and the inner tube 343 and the rib plates 345 can be formed from stainless steel. The outer tube 341 formed from nickel metal and/or nickel alloy can further improve the heat removal efficacy of the intercepting tubes 340, and can it facilitates to prevent the fouling defect induced by the reaction heat; and the inner tube 343 and the rib plates 345 can be as a supporting for the outer tube 341, and thereby the compressive strength of the intercepting tube 340 is efficiently improved.
In some application examples, the heat transfer coefficient of the polymerization vessel including the aforementioned cooling channel and intercepting tubes of the present application can be enhanced to 1200 kcal/m2 hr° C., thereby facilitating to remove the reaction heat, and the cooling channel and the intercepting tubes have excellent compressive strength. Therefore, the polymerization vessel of the present application can meet the designed requirements of high pressure resistance for a large-scale polymerization vessel. The cooling channel can efficiently solve the by-pass defects of the cooling fluid in the conventional cooling channel, and therefore it facilitates to improve the heat removal efficacy of the polymerization vessel. Besides, based on the materials adopted in the nickel layer and the intercepting tubes, the general fouling defects are efficiently controlled, thereby contributing to prolong service life and the heat removal efficacy of the polymerization vessel, further meeting the requirements of the large-scale polymerization vessel and efficiently lowering cost of the unit
Accordingly, the spiral flow channel with specific structures of the present application is integrally formed on the interior surface of the vessel body, and the shell plates are further covered thereon to form the closed cooling channel, further efficiently solving the conventional by-pass defects. Moreover, the nickel layer is formed on the surface of the cooling channel, such that the surface of the cooling channel is hard to be fouled, thereby preventing the lowering of the cooling efficiency induced by the fouling, and further the heat removal efficacy of the cooling channel is enhanced. Besides, the intercepting tubes are disposed in the polymerization vessel of the present application to enhance the heat removal efficacy thereof. The intercepting tube is designed as a double tube including a nickel tube and a stainless steel tube, thereby efficiently inhibiting fouling and increasing flowing rate, and further the heat removal efficacy and the compressive strength of the polymerization vessel are improved.
As is understood by a person skilled in the art, the foregoing preferred embodiments of the present application are illustrated of the present application rather than limiting of the present application. In view of the foregoing, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Therefore, the scope of which should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar structure.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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111133238 | Sep 2022 | TW | national |