Catalyst Solutions

Lummus Technology takes a hands-on approach with its catalyst technologies, hosting all the necessary capabilities in-house to develop catalyst systems for the Novolen® gas-phase solution. This includes an advanced research and development center and pilot plant for testing and scale up activities. For the Excene™ technology, the catalyst is developed by our partner, Texplore. Our ability to handle product, process and catalyst testing in-house allows us to perfect and deliver the appropriate solutions to our licensees that support their market strategy.

Benefits

Ziegler-Natta Catalyst

For the Novolen® gas-phase process, we offer Ziegler-Natta NHP® catalyst systems that are proven in commercial polypropylene plants around the world. Our catalysts produce the complete polypropylene product range demanded by today’s markets. The product slate covers the range from high stiffness homopolymers to super-high impact copolymers, including a wide range of random copolymers and terpolymers.

For the EXCENE high-density polyethylene (HDPE) technology, Texplore’s slurry-phase process, we supply the proprietary EL-CAT™ Ziegler catalyst. The EL-CAT HDPE grades can be produced in a wide range including film, blow molding, injection and pipe grades.

The excellent morphology of our catalyst systems is replicated in the polymer powder, supporting easy operation of the reactor and subsequent solid handling systems. For the HDPE as well as the PP technology, the catalyst systems are easy to operate and do not require any pre-polymerization step.

Metallocene Catalyst

Lummus Technology is one of the leading suppliers in the field of metallocene catalysts. Our proprietary Novocene® technology is the ideal complement for added value applications.

High-performance metallocene single-site polymerization catalysts are tailored to produce the full range of polypropylene homo- and co-polymers. These show unique properties, which cannot be met by conventional Ziegler-Natta polypropylene grades, namely:

• Very uniform and narrow molecular weight distribution (MWD < 2.5)
• Uniform comonomer incorporation
• Significantly reduced low molecular weight fractions (low solvent extractables)
• Significantly reduced chlorine content (typically < 2 ppm)
• Much better crystallization behavior and reduced crystallite size

Due to the superior balance of properties, metallocene polypropylene catalysts target value-added high-performance applications ideal for the replacement of conventional Ziegler-Natta polypropylene grades.

We also have the necessary know-how for implementation, polymers and related services. With the introduction of our latest generation of high-performance Novocene catalysts, metallocene polypropylene technology has reached a cost-competitive range compared to Ziegler-Natta catalysts.

Our broad access to metallocene patent rights and outstanding expertise in this technology enables us to sell the metallocene catalyst to all interested parties, as well as our own Novolen process and other polypropylene process technologies.

EXCENE and EL-CAT are trademarks of Texplore Company Limited.