CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY

Styrene is a colourless oily liquid with a sweet smell. It is an

aromatic olefin

Most important monomers in modern petrochemical

industry.

Mainly used for production of many different polymeric

materials.

Styrene is easily reacting to double bond that can undergo

polymerisation reactions with it or other monomers.

Styrene is used to make insulation, automobile parts, floor

waxes and polishes, shoes, printing cartiges and copy
machine toner.
 Uses of Styrene

Styrene in industrial production

Styrene in food packaging and service

Styrene in protective packaging

Styrene in Dairy packaging

 Physical and Chemical Properties

 Appearance : Colorless to yellow oily liquid.

 Odor : Penetrating odor.
 Solubility : Negligible (< 0.1%)
 Density : 0.9059 @ 20C
 pH : No information found.
 % Volatiles by volume @ 21C (70F): 100
 Boiling Point : 145 - 146C (293 - 295F)
 Melting Point : - 30.6C (-24F)
 Vapor Density (Air=1) : 3.6
 Vapor Pressure (mm Hg) : 5 @ 20C (68F)
 Evaporation Rate (BuAc=1) : No information found.
 Production Process of Styrene

Dehydrogenation Toluene Alkylation

of ethylbenzene with methanol

Dehydogenation
of ethylbenzene
and Oxidation of
Hydrogen
 Dehydrogenation of Ethyl benzene
 The production of styrene increased dramatically during the 1940s, when it
was used as a feedstock for synthetic rubber.
 Ethyl benzene is mixed in the gas phase with 10–15 times its volume of high-
temperature steam, and passed over a solid catalyst bed.(iron(III) oxide)
 Steam serves several roles in this reaction. It is the source of heat for
powering the endothermic reaction, and it removes coke that tends to
form on the iron oxide catalyst through the water gas shift reaction.
 The steam also dilutes the reactant and products, shifting the position of
chemical equilibrium towards products.
 The main byproducts are benzene and toluene.
 styrene and ethyl benzene have similar boiling points (145 and 136 °C,
respectively), their separation requires tall distillation towers and high
return/reflux ratios. At its distillation temperatures, styrene tends to
polymerize.
 Toluene Alkylation with methanol
 An alternative styrene route is the side-chain alkylation of toluene, with
methanol to yield styrene, hydrogen and water.
 Methanol decomposed easily to hydrogen and carbon monoxide, leading
to a low selectivity. In addition, the hydrogen could convert the styrene to
EB, leading to low styrene yields.
 This by-product formation also made the styrene purification difficult. As a
result, the maximum styrene yield achieved was 10%.
 The catalyst is a modified zeolite material containing basic active sites in a
highly optimized pore structure. The active sites selectively adsorb toluene
over methanol to limit methanol decomposition.
 The pore structure facilitates diffusion and residence time of the reactants
to enhance toluene alkylation.
 Dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene and
Oxidation of Hydrogen

 Dehydrogenation/oxidation processes are characterized by the injection of

a gas containing oxygen either in the effluent or in the feed of a
dehydrogenation reactor, in order to catalytically oxidize, either in part or
totally, the co-produced or co-fed hydrogen.
 the shift of the dehydrogenation equilibrium by consuming hydrogen, so
achieving higher product yields.
 Higher yields are obtained both by increasing the conversion and by
increasing the selectivity when moving far from the equilibrium.
 This type of process can be applied with dehydrogenating catalysts which
are stable or not poisoned in the presence of steam; in fact this type of
process is also referred to as 'steam oxidation dehydrogenation'
 From ethylbenzene hydroperoxide
POSM
 In this process ethylbenzene is treated with oxygen to form the
ethylbenzene hydroperoxide.
 This hydroperoxide is then used to oxidize propylene to propylene oxide.
The resulting 1-phenylethanol is dehydrated to give styrene.
 Market Demand
 Highly used in packaging and constructive industry.
 Lead to increasing demand for infrastructure facilities and consumer goods.
 Styrene is used in everything from food containers and packaging materials
to cars, boats, computers, and video games.
 Growth in the end-user application industries such as:
# automotive
# construction
• China, Japan and The United States are world’s largest styrene producers ,
responsible for about 44% of global production.
• Taiwan and South Korea follow closely behind with about 16% of world’s
styrene production.
• Asia controls a majority of market, holding about half of the world’s
styrene capacity and production.
• Europe, North America, The Middle East and Latin America account
for the other half of the world’s styrene capacity.
 References

 Alternative processes for the production of styrene F. Cavani *, F. Trifir6

Dipartimento di Chimica Industriale e dei Materiali, Universit~ di Bologna,
Viale Risorgimento 4,40136 Bologna, Italy.
 Toluene Alkylation with Methanol to form Styrene Monomer, Peter Taffe, 21
January 2008.