BASRA UNIVERSITY FOR OIL & GAS

Oil & gas engineering college

Department of Chemical & refining engineering
2016/2017
Styrene production
TEAM MEMBERS
1. Noor Taha
2. Haneen Saad
3. Karrar Abdul ghani supervisor
4. Natheer Nesr Dr.Mustafa
Al.faiz
5. Amjad Wadhah
PRODUCTION OF STYRENE
 LIST OF CONTENT
1- introduction
2- Styrene application & global demand
3- uses of styrene
4- production process of styrene
5- selection of process manufacture
6- dehydrogenation of ethyl benzene
7- Advantage of using superheated steam
8- Significant of catalyst
9- Health and safety hazard
10- Material balance
INTRODUCTION
Styrene is a certain organic chemical compound having the chemical formula C8H8. Its chemical structure is made
up of a vinyl group bonded onto a benzene ring. This benzene ring makes styrene an aromatic compound. At room
temperature and pressure, styrene is a clear, colorless liquid and distinctive sweetish aromatic odor.
styrene is also known as ethenyl benzene, phenyl ethylene, phenyl ethene, vinyl benzene,
cinnamon or styrene monomer . It is miscible with most organic solvents in any ratio and is
a good solvent for synthetic rubber, polystyrene and other high molecular weight polymers
and slightly soluble in water .
it is a monocyclic alkenyl aromatic compound with a molecular weight of 104(g/mol). Being
rather volatile and having a flash point of 32C, styrene is classified as a flammable
substance, which in use may form flammable/explosive vapor-air mixtures. Despite its high
boiling point(145c) .
It is undergoes many reactions of an unsaturated compound, such as addition, and substitution .It reacts with
various oxidizing agents to form styrene oxide, Benz aldehyde, benzoic acid, and other oxygenated compounds. It
reacts with benzene on an acidic catalyst to form diphenylethane. Further dehydrogenation of styrene to phenyl
acetylene is unfavorable even at the high temperature of 600C, but a concentration of about 50 ppm of phenyl
acetylene is usually seen in the commercial styrene product.
 STYRENE APPLICATION & GLOBAL DEMAND
Poly styrene (PS) : general packing , furniture ,electrical other ; 7%

equipment , industrial molding (medical ,dental). composite ; 4%

sb ruber ; 5%
Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS): interior and
exterior automobile part , pipes ,air condition part .sb latex; 5%
Styrene-butadiene latex (SBL) : carpet backing and
paper coating.
Styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR): used in tires, belting,
wire insulation, footwear, flooring ,paper coating abs,san;
. 21%
ps; 59%

Styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN): packing, battery packing ,

house wares , household appliance.
Unsaturated polyester resins (UPR, USPE or PES):
global
demand 2013 (27*10^6 ton )

boats, helmets, military industry.

USES OF STYRENE
PRODUCTION PROCESS OF STYRENE

1- Styrene from toluene and methanol

2- Styrene from oxidation of ethyl benzene
3- Styrene from dehydrogenation of ethyl benzene
A- Adiabatic dehydrogenation
B- Isothermal dehydrogenation
SELECTION OF PROCESS MANUFACTURE
We'll take the adiabatic Dehydrogenation of ethyl benzene method as our main process in
this project for the following reasons:

1- high production capacity

2- this process gives a yield that reaches 88-95% of styrene.
3- This process is the easiest of the others with less complications in its reactions.
4- low operating cost .
5- cheap raw material .
6- it is represent 75% of global production.
7- Available for the manufacture of a high purity styrene monomer .
8- Reduces downtime.
DEHYDROGENATION OF ETHYL BENZENE
Ethyl benzene feed is mixed with recycled ethyl benzene, heated, and then mixed with high-
temperature, superheated steam.
The reactants then enter adiabatic reactors .
Where the dehydrogenation of ethyl benzene process take place at 630c.
main reaction :
C6H5CH2CH3 C6H5CHCH2 + H2 H=129.4kJ/mol , conversion=65%
ethyl benzene styrene hydrogen
side reactions:
C6H5CH2CH3 C6H6 + C2H4 H=101.8 kJ/mol selectivity of
Be/st=0.02
ethyl benzene benzene ethylene
C6H5CH2CH3 + H2 C6H5CH3 + CH4 H=-64.5 kJ/mol selectivity of
To/st=0.03
ethyl benzene hydrogen toluene methane
The products are cooled to 65c by series of heat exchangers.
 The cooled product stream is sent to a three-phase separator, in which light gases
(hydrogen, methane, ethylene), organic liquid(Be,To,St,Eb), and water each exit in separate
streams.
To minimize polymerization of the styrene product, this separation unit should be designed
to operate at (1 atm ) and temperature 65c.
The organic liquid product stream enters the distillation.
Toluene and Benzene are the overhead, styrene and ethyl benzene from bottom product
from 1st Distillation Column.
The bottom product ( styrene and ethyl benzene) from 1 st Distillation Column enter the
second distillation column.
The overhead ethyl benzene product, contains small amounts of styrene and is recycled to
mix with fresh ethyl benzene before enters the reactor.
The bottoms product of 2nd distillation must be at least 99.9% pure styrene with at least.
PFD OF STYRENE PRODUCTION
ADVANTAGE OF USING SUPERHEATED STEAM

Steam is present in excess in the ethyl benzene dehydrogenation process with

mass ratio
2.6 steam/E.B .
steam can provide the heat to maintain the reaction temperature at (630c).
steam acts as a diluent to shift the equilibrium conversion to higher value through
a decrease of the partial pressures of ethyl benzene and hydrogen.
steam removes the carbonaceous deposition on catalyst surface by the
gasification reaction.
Avoid catalyst over reduction and deactivation by controlling the valence state of
iron.
SIGNIFICANT OF CATALYST

The dehydrogenation of EB to St in industry is carried out over potassium promoted iron

oxide catalysts.
Potassium was found to increases the activity of pure Fe 2O3 (hematite) catalysts by one
order of magnitude, and play a role in the removal of carbonaceous surface deposits, by
catalysing the combustion of coke with steam.
Properties of catalyst such as size and shape . In theory, smaller sized catalyst will increase
reaction rates by providing more available catalyst surface area than larger sized catalyst.
 STORAGE
Special handling and storage procedures are required to maintain the styrene product
quality and to avoid a potentially dangerous situation involving uncontrolled polymerization.
prevented by maintaining low temperature and using polymerization inhibitor TBC (tertiary-
butyl catechol) and is typically used at concentrations between 10 ppm and 15 ppm.
To be effective TBC requires dissolved oxygen to be present in concentrations roughly
equal to the TBC concentration.
Styrene storage facilities are generally maintained at temperatures below about 20_C,
which allows for storage times of around 10 weeks.
TBC is added occasionally during storage to maintain the concentration in the desired
range.
HEALTH AND SAFETY HAZARD
Styrene is highly volatile, flammable and, if inhibitor (tertiary-butyl catechol) levels are not properly maintained, is
subject to hazardous polymerization.
The most common health problems in workers exposed to styrene involve the nervous system. These health effects
include changes in colour vision, tiredness, feeling drunk, slowed reaction time, concentration problems, and
balance problems. The styrene concentrations that cause these effects are more than 1,000 times higher than the
levels normally found in the environment.
it is very important to store in clean, properly ventilated storage containers in a cool area with adequate
polymerization inhibitor.
MATERIAL BALANCE

The material balance of styrene production unit can be discuses in four

section:

1-material balance around adiabatic reactor

2-material balance around three-phase separator
3-material balance around distillation towers
4-scale up of over all process
1-material balance around adiabatic reactor
2-material balance around three-phase separator
3-material balance around distillation towers
4-scale up of over all process

Scaling factor =(required flow of in put E.B)/(assumed flow rate of input E.B)
s.f= 12855.03598/100
s.f= 128.5503598
thank you