Manufacturing
High-Density Polyethylene HDPE

The first production units date back to the mid-1950s. In 1955, Hoechst started up the first unit based on Ziegler-Natta catalysis, followed in 1956 by Phillips Petroleum and its industrial reactor employing a chromium catalyst.

In the 1960s, improvements were made to the Ziegler process with the use of super-active catalysts, eliminating the need for costly catalytic residue removal. Subsequently, new processes were developed, such as gas-phase polymerization and particle-form processes.

In the 1990s, the use of serial polymerization reactors enabled the synthesis of bimodal HDPE, combining good mechanical properties with ease of resin processing.