The production of alpha olefins having unbranched carbon skeletal configurations and terminal unsaturation has been practiced for 20 or more years. See for example, Chemical Engineering Progress 58:85-90 (June 1962) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,227,773, dated Jan. 4, 1966. With the advent of the triorganometallic compounds, viz, triethyl and tri-n-butyl aluminum, large scale commercial production has occurred. The primary and desired products are the C.sub.12 to C.sub.18 .alpha.-olefins for detergent use and the C.sub.10.sbsb.+ for synthetic lubricants. The lower carbon atom compounds, viz, C.sub.6 to C.sub.8 have recently found utility in the polymer field and thus they are being recovered from the present day processes in increasing volume. In Ser. No. 179,348 filed Aug. 18, 1980, there is disclosed a process which provides for the production of increased amounts of C.sub.4 -C.sub.10 alpha olefins.
The use of elongated coil growth reactors is well known from U.S. Pat. No. 2,971,969.