Published March 1990
The annual worldwide consumption of ethylene-propylene copolymer and terpolymer rubbers has exceeded a billion pounds (450 thousand metric tons) for the last three years, making them currently the fourth-most-popular synthetic rubber. Plants have been expanded to meet future demands and new processes are being developed.
In this report, we evaluate the process economics of two potential processes under development for commercialization: a simplified suspension process for ethylene-propylene copolymer rubbers, and a gas-phase process for ethylene-propylene copolymer and terpolymer rubbers. We also update process economics for the production of ethylene-propylene-ethylidene norbornene terpolymer rubbers by a solution process and a suspension process, and the production of ethylene-propylene-1,4-hexadiene terpolymer rubbers by a solution process.
