A method of preparing a catalyst comprising a) contacting a titanium-containing compound, a solvating agent, and a solvent to form a solution; b) contacting the solution with a chrominated silica-support to form a pre-catalyst; and c) thermally treating the pre-catalyst by heating to a temperature of from about 400 C. to about 1000 C. for a time period of from about 1 minute to about 24 hours to form the catalyst.

Disclosed is a transesterified polylactic acid product which has been transesterified with a diol and at least one natural oil. The transesterified polylactic acid product has surprisingly improved properties compared to unmodified polylactic acid including: a liquid state at room temperature, a reduced melting temperature and increased solubility in a variety of solvents. Also disclosed is a method for producing the transesterified polylactic acid product. The transesterified polylactic acid product is economical to produce and includes a high content of renewable resources. In addition, the product is biodegradable.

A flexible manufacturing system for selectively producing different alpha-olefins from ethylene includes: (a) a reaction section 18 with ethylene feed operative to oligomerize ethylene; (b) a catalyst feed system 12, 14, 16 comprising a plurality of independent homogeneous catalyst feeders connected with the reaction section for alternatively providing different selective homogeneous catalyst compositions to the reaction section; (c) an ethylene recycle column 22 coupled to the reaction section and adapted to receive crude product and unreacted ethylene therefrom, the recycle column being operative to separate ethylene and optionally lower oligomers from the crude product which are recycled to the ethylene feed to the reaction section, the ethylene recycle column being further operative to provide a crude product bottoms stream; (d) a catalyst removal section 20 coupled to the reaction section adapted to remove spent catalyst from the system; and (e) a first product separation column 24 connected to the recycle column receiving the crude product stream therefrom, the product separation column being operative to separate purified oligomer from the crude product stream. Optionally provided is a second product separation column 26.

Provided are industrial processes for producing an organic acid alky ester from a feedstock containing organic acids and/or saponifiables, comprising: countercurrently contacting a feedstock with an organic alkylating reagent over two or more vessels or stages at temperature between 100 C. and 400 C. and pressure between 0.1 barg and 355 barg while simultaneously removing water and/or glycerin with unreacted alkylating reagent from the final vessel or stage to result in a first reaction method product containing organic acid alkyl esters, followed by a choice of using the alkyl esters as-is, purifying the organic acid alkyl esters from the first reaction product mixture or subjecting the first reaction product mixture to an additional transesterification reaction to convert saponifiables into additional organic acid alkyl esters, then purifying the organic acid alkyl esters from this second reaction method product.

A system and method for producing 1-butene and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), including feeding a catalyst, an antifouling co-catalyst, and ethylene to a reactor, and dimerizing ethylene into 1-butene and polymerizing a relatively small portion of the ethylene into UHMWPE. A product slurry including 1-butene and UHMWPE is discharged from reactor and UHMWPE is removed from the product slurry as a coproduct of the product 1-butene. The coproduct UHMWPE may be a byproduct that is a relatively small amount of the product slurry. The quantity of UHMWPE produced may be small in comparison to the quantity of 1-butene produced.

A method for producing a carbodiimide compound, comprising a carbodiimide production step of reacting an aliphatic tertiary isocyanate compound (A) in the presence of an organic alkali metal compound (B) having Lewis basicity.

A specific mixture of polyols, at least one of which contains the transesterification product of the polymer polylactic acid with natural oils. The mixture of polyols can be used as one component of a two-component adhesive for laminating flexible packaging. The other component comprises an isocyanate-functionalized compound. The two components are combined before use and the resulting adhesive can be used to bond films to form a flexible packaging material.

A catalyst for use in esterification reaction is provided. The catalyst is formed by reacting a mixture including at least one first compound and at least one second compound. The at least one first compound is a metal alkoxide, an inorganic metal salt, a metal carboxylate salt, an inorganic metal compound, or a combination thereof, and each foregoing compound has titanium, aluminum, zirconium, hafnium, zinc, or bismuth. The at least one second compound is an alpha hydroxyl acid, an alkyl ester formed by an alpha hydroxyl acid and an alcohol, an alkyl amide formed by an alpha hydroxyl acid and an amine, an amino acid, an alkyl ester formed by an amino acid and an alcohol, an alkyl amide formed by an amino acid and an amine, or a combination thereof.

Catalyst systems containing a titanium alkoxymagnesium halide supported catalyst component can be used for the polymerization of olefins. The catalyst can be prepared from a microcrystalline solid alkoxymagnesium halide support having a lattice spacing in the 5 nm to 15 nm range.

A method of preparing a catalyst comprising a) contacting a titanium-containing compound, a solvating agent, and a solvent to form a solution; b) contacting the solution with a chrominated silica-support to form a pre-catalyst; and c) thermally treating the pre-catalyst by heating to a temperature of from about 400 C. to about 1000 C. for a time period of from about 1 minute to about 24 hours to form the catalyst.