Question

Business information on styrene, such as major producers, trends in worldwide production capacity, recent industry news, new projects, typical plant capacities, and historic and current prices, and technology developments. Please include at least two recent business sources and one recent research / technology development article, with recent meaning, say, 2017–2020.

Answer 1

Styrene is most important monomers produced by the chemical industry.

Styrene monomer is a basic building block of the plastics industry.

The conventional method of producing styrene involves the alkylation of benzene with ethylene to produce ethylbenzene, followed by dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene to styrene. Styrene undergoes polymerization by to produce a wide variety of polymers and copolymers.

Following are some of the leading producers of styrene in the world

Sr no.	Producer Name	Styrene production rate (tonnes/year)
1	Americas Styrenics LLC(450,000+500,000)	950,000
2	Jubail Chevron Phillips Co	775,000
3	Carville Styrenics Complex	660,000
4	Ineos Styrolution America LLC	600,000
5	Siam Styrene Monomer Co	200 000

Consumption of styrene

40% of the styrene consumed worldwide in 2012 were used for production of polystyrene (PS). Polystyrene (PS) which is used in the manufacturing of food packaging as well as electrical and electronic devices.Market researchers at Ceresana forecast global demand for styrene in the production of polystyrene (PS) to rise by, on average, 2.3% per year.

The second largest market for the styrene

Styrene based engineering plastics such as acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) are used by the automotive and electronics industry, while styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) is processed into tires.

Styrene-butadiene latex (SBL) is utilized in carpets and paper coatings. Another application is the manufacturing of unsaturated polyester resins (UPR), which are processed into fiberglass suitable for automotive bodyworks and naval vessels due to its rigidity. According to the analyses of Ceresana, the production of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and expandable polystyrene (EPS) will provide the largest stimuli to growth in the future.

Demand in these segments is projected to increase by 4.1% and 3.8% p.a. respectively until 2020.

New projects of styrene:

INEOS Styrolution build a new world –scale styrene plant in the US marks a stunning turnaround for an industry that only recently was struggling with weak margins.

Ethane-based margins for US styrene contracts have risen sharply over the years, according to ICIS. For integrated producers, they rose to 25.17 cents/lb ($555/tonne) so far this year from 18.06 cent/lb in 2012. For standalone producers, margins rose to 19.06 cents/lb year to date from 9.01 cents/lb.

On July 10, the "Industrial Application of 300,000 tons/year Styrene Complete Technology" project completed by Changzhou Ruihua Chemical Engineering Technology Co., Ltd. passed the evaluation of scientific and technological achievements organized by China Private Science and Technology Promotion Association in Beijing.

Price of styrene

Year	Pice/kg INR
2015	64
2016	94
2017	78
2018	98.5
2019	80
2020	78

Technology development in styrene:

1) Genome engineering of E. coli for improved styrene production (Published January 2020)

Microbial production of exogenous organic compounds is challenging as biosynthetic pathways are often complex and produce metabolites that are toxic to the hosts. Biogenic styrene is an example of this problem, which if addressed could result in a more sustainable supply of this important component of the plastics industry. In this study, we engineered Escherichia coli for the production of styrene. We systematically optimized the production capability by first screening different pathway expression levels in E. coli strains. We then further designed and constructed a transcription regulator library targeting 54 genes with 85,420 mutations, and tested this library for increased styrene resistance and production. A series of tolerant mutants not only exhibited improved styrene tolerance but also produced higher styrene concentrations compared to the parent strain. The best producing mutant, ST05 LexA_E45I, produced a 3.45-fold increase in styrene compared to the parent strain. The produced styrene was extracted via gas stripping into dodecane and used in a direct free radical synthesis of polystyrene.

1. Modeling and optimal control of conversion section of styrene plant to overcome eeffect of catalyst deactivation on production capacity

In this research, a pseudo steady state model is developed based on the mass and energy balance equations to simulate conversion section of a styrene monomer production plant. The conversion section includes three radial flow reactors in series, equipped with inter stage coolers. Typically, dehydrogenation catalyst experiences deactivation due to loss and migration of promoters, and increasing temperature and steam flow rate are practical solutions to prevent production decay in the plant. In the first step, accuracy of the simulation results is proved against plant data. Since there are different paths to overcome catalyst decay and maintain production capacity at desired level, the main challenge is selection and sequence of manipulated variables to control production capacity considering minimum effort. In this research, a real time optimization strategy is proposed to calculate the optimal trajectory of manipulated variables to control production and selectivity at desired level based on the optimal control theory. The optimization results indicated applying obtained optimal trajectories on the system increases production capacity about 16.13%.

Recent news about styrene business

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS): Regional and Global Market Opportunities – Key Competitors, Industry Segments, and Strategic Analysis, 2020-2026

The specialized and in-depth industry study about the global Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) market is published by the Market Research Store. It deals with the complete business and technical outlook of the Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) market. The report provides the clients with the historical data of the Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) market, that is, from 2016 to 2019. The current market situation of the Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) market is also described. The current market position of the Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) market is greatly impacted by COVID-19. The market analysis of the Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) market by the market analysts states that the market players will have to change their business strategies in order to revive the market from the situations due to the outbreak of pandemic. The report also covers the forecast data of the market which has changed significantly owing to the lockdown in many of the regions.