Final Technical Report - Autothermal Styrene Manufacturing Process with Net Export of Energy

The overall objectives of the project were to: (a) develop an economically competitive processing technology for styrene monomer (SM) that would reduce process energy requirements by a minimum 25% relative to those of conventional technology while achieving a minimum 10% ROI; and (b) advance the technology towards commercial readiness. This technology is referred to as OMT (Oxymethylation of Toluene). The unique energy savings feature of the OMT technology would be replacement of the conventional benzene and ethylene feedstocks with toluene, methane in natural gas and air or oxygen, the latter of which have much lower specific energy of production values. As an oxidative technology, OMT is a net energy exporter rather than a net energy consumer like the conventional ethylbenzene/styrene (EB/SM) process. OMT plants would ultimately reduce the cost of styrene monomer which in turn will decrease the costs of polystyrene making it perhaps more cost competitive with competing polymers such as polypropylene