Process design of a styrene monomer storage facility in a chemical plant

Styrene monomer is one of the most widely commercialized monomers worldwide, primarily used in the packaging, automotive, and construction industries. Despite its high demand, dedicated storage facilities are currently lacking in Italy. This thesis, developed in collaboration with Seingim Global Service S.r.l., presents the design of a 6 000-ton storage and handling plant for styrene, to be located within a chemical hub in Porto Marghera, Italy. The tendency of the monomer to undergo self-initiated runaway polymerization poses significant challenges. To tackle them, a comprehensive process design is developed, including the definition of the plant layout, equipment sizing, and the implementation of safety measures. Loss of containment and consequence modeling are utilized to highlight safety requirements and validate the proposed configuration. Process simulations in Aspen HYSYS are employed for both steady-state and dynamic analyses, supporting equipment design and control strategy development. A detailed cost estimation reveals that the largest capital expenditures are associated with the storage tanks and the emissions abatement system. Given the uniqueness of such a facility in the Italian context, this design represents a valuable engineering case study to improve the national chemical supply chain. Future work could explore advanced control logic and fluid dynamics simulations to further optimize safety and performance under both normal and accidental conditions.