Fazle Sibtain , NOVA Chemicals Corporation, 2928 - 16th Street NE, Calgary, Alberta, CA, T2E 7K7 | Robert Waymouth | Kyoko Nozaki | Michael Chan

The primary focus of this symposium will be multi-disciplinary interactions between chemistry and engineering in the area of olefin polymerization with contributions from researchers in both academia and industry. Recent years have seen some major developments in catalysis and process chemistry areas within the polyolefins industry. It takes more than contacting a new organometallic complex with olefin(s) in a reactor to make the millions of pounds of polyolefins produced and consumed daily around the world - many catalyst species are synthesized and demonstrated in the lab and even on pilot plant scales but few are commercialized. Various aspects of the challenges in the areas of new catalyst synthesis; fluid dynamics, mechanical and chemical engineering fundamentals associated with scale up translation from mg to kg scale catalyst synthesis and supply; advances in feed purification required as new generation of polyolefin catalysts are developed; impact of reactor mixing; strategies for MWD control; phase behaviour, etc. will be presented by experts from around the world. It is a long and arduous road to travel from the synthesis of an olefin polymerization catalyst on the lab bench to the world scale polyolefin commercial reactors.