Production process of poly(arylene sulfide) and production apparatus thereof

摘要

A production process of a poly(arylene sulfide) (PAS), including a polymerization step of forming a PAS from a sulfur source that is an alkali metal (hydro)sulfides and a dihalo-aromatic compound in an organic amide solvent; a separation step of PAS particles; a countercurrent washing step that is a step of washing the PAS particles with water and/or an organic solvent, wherein a downward current of a PAS particle-containing aqueous slurry is continuously brought into countercurrent contact with an upward current of a washing liquid; a PAS particle re-separation step of capturing a washing waste liquid by a PAS particle re-separating unit, in which a micro-slit filter has been installed, and then re-separating the PAS particles from the micro-slit filter, preferably using a backwashing unit, to discharge them; and a collecting step of the PAS particles discharged, and a production apparatus of a poly(arylene sulfide).

主权项

1. A production process of a poly(arylene sulfide), comprising
a polymerization step of subjecting at least one sulfur source selected from the group consisting of alkali metal sulfides and alkali metal hydrosulfides and a dihalo-aromatic compound to a polymerization reaction in an organic amide solvent to form a poly(arylene sulfide); a separation step of separating poly(arylene sulfide) particles from a reaction mixture containing the poly(arylene sulfide) particles; a countercurrent washing step comprising washing the separated poly(arylene sulfide) particles with at least one washing liquid selected from the group consisting of water, an organic solvent and a mixed solution of water and an organic solvent in a washing tower composed of a tower top portion, a body portion and a tower bottom portion, wherein a poly(arylene sulfide) particle-containing aqueous slurry is introduced from an aqueous slurry supply port and caused to proceed downward in the washing tower, the washing liquid is introduced to the tower bottom portion and caused to proceed upward to continuously bring the washing liquid into countercurrent contact with the aqueous slurry in the body portion, thereby conducting countercurrent washing, the poly(arylene sulfide) particles are discharged from a polymer particle discharge port in the tower bottom portion, and a washing waste liquid is discharged from a washing waste liquid discharge port in the tower top portion, wherein the body portion is divided into stirring chambers and the respective stirring chambers are mutually partitioned by partitioning plates, each plate having a center opening, wherein an agitating blade is arranged in each of the stirring chambers and the agitating blade is rotationally fixed to a common agitator shaft extending through the tower top portion and the body portion and is rotated in the stirring chamber, and wherein the tower top portion has a flow path area sufficiently enlarged relative to the body portion such that the poly(arylene sulfide) particle-containing aqueous slurry introduced from the aqueous slurry supply port avoids axial backmixing by a liquid current discharged from the washing waste liquid discharge port; a poly(arylene sulfide) particle re-separation step comprising supplying the washing waste liquid discharged from the washing waste liquid discharge port to a poly(arylene sulfide) particle re-separating unit including a micro-slit filter having slits of a size within a range of 30 to 200 μm, wherein the micro-slit filter captures poly(arylene sulfide) particles from the washing waste liquid, and then re-separating the captured poly(arylene sulfide) particles from the micro-slit filter by a periodic backwashing operation; a collecting step of collecting the poly(arylene sulfide) particles separated from the micro-slit filter; and a collecting step of collecting poly(arylene sulfide) particles discharged from the polymer particle discharge port.