Published May 1989
This report covers the technology and costs of manufacturing high density polyethylene (HDPE) . HDPE is a plastic that has applications in the manufacture of blow-molded and injec- tion-molded goods, film, and plastic pipe.
Four HDPE production processes are presented along with an overview of the status of HDPE catalyst development. Section 4 summarizes the patent positions of several important HDPE producers. Section 5 discusses the gas phase fluidized-bed process. Section 6 discusses the medium pressure solution process. Section 7 discusses the stirred-tank heavy diluent process, and Section 8 discusses the loop reactor slurry process. Production costs of important grades are presented for all four processes. In addition, we present a methodology for calculating grade change switching costs for all of the processes.
