Team 7: Engineering an Alternate Route to Styrene

Larae Baker Adam Jones Michael Heslinga Jonathan Bush Maxine Bent

Outline Re-introduction Feasibility Struggles Design Norms Changes

Brief (re-)Introduction Design a styrene plant on a computer simulator –Production capacity of 2 billion pounds of styrene per year; ~17% of current US market –Currently sold at $0.70/lb New chemical process –Dow Chemical and Snamprogetti

PFD

Feasibility Chemical –Patents Separations –Current industry practices Financial –Capital Investment and Operating Cost –Less costly raw materials –No Prototype

Struggles Proprietary Information –Literature –Contact at Dow Chemical Reaction Kinetics –Catalyst Design Design norms Four to six weeks in the lab can save you an hour in the library - G.C. Quarderer

Design Norms Justice and Caring –Where to build a plant –NIMBY Environmental Stewardship –Possible recycling technology in progress –Use energy/raw material wisely –How to handle waste Creating something people need (at a lower cost)

Video found by Bob DeKracker

Changes since Last Presentation No lab work –Catalyst –Reagents –Equipment Solution –Develop lab experiments –Using heuristics

Where to go from here? Further Research Base Case Simulation Equipment Design –Reactor - Alkylation –Reactor - Dehydrogenation –Separations Equipment Economic Optimization

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