The 6th version of the series INCOREP conferences, the International Conference on the Reaction Engineering of Polyolefins, was run at the Centre Court on the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Geleen NL from June 6-9. Since it was begun in 2000, INCOREP has been run in Lyon, France, Montreal Canada, and Ferrara Italy before moving to Geleen. Very strong local support was provided by SABIC, who, in addition to several other important sponsors, helped bring together approximately 120 industrial scientists and engineers, as well as academic researchers and graduate students from Europe, Asia, and North and South America.
SABIC’s Dr. Nic Friedrichs said of the event, “The excellent conference facilities in the Center Court are a good display for the Brightlands campus to act as a hub for ground-breaking new developments in the chemical industry and material science. The broad scientific scope of the INCOREP enables scientists to get inspired by the newest developments in various technology areas. The fact that the INCOREP was held so close to the SABIC facilities in Geleen created a unique opportunity to demonstrate SABIC’s commitment to continuous innovations in the field of polyolefins.”
Several other industrial collaborators present expressed their appreciation for the conference, saying that such an event was an excellent opportunity for them to get a indepth look at the state of the art in a diverse range of subjects important to their work.
Discussions focused on reaction engineering, chemistry, processing and product development in the field of olefin polymerization, with 32 oral and 30 poster presentations covering a broad range of subjects. The conference opened with a key note address by Professor Juraj Kosek of the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, who discussed a subject of growing interest: the highly practical implications of mastering the thermodynamics of what happens inside polymerization reactors. Other talks touched on innovative methods to increase the rubber content of high impact copolymers through in situ crosslinking, the development of iron-based catalysts for the(co)polymerization of ethylene, and understanding how static electricity is generated in gas phase reactors, just to cite a few.
For those who are interested, the abstract book for the oral and conference presentations can be downloaded here. And to keep tabs on future manifestations of the INCOREP conference (and similar events), please join the LinkedIn group Polyolefin reaction engineering.
Click here for the photogallery of INCOREP 2017.
