Styrene monomer cooling: controlling fouling and polymerisation risk.
SACOME has designed and manufactured a tubular heat exchanger for the industrial production and control of polystyrene (PS) through the polymerisation of styrene monomer.
The process used by the client is based on free-radical polymerisation, in which styrene radicals form spontaneously. To stabilise the process, the styrene is stored in refrigerated tanks with inhibitors. It is in this cooling stage that the heat exchanger supplied by SACOME comes into operation, cooling a flow of 10,000 to 20,000 kg/h of inhibited styrene monomer (ISM) down to 21 °C.
The selected solution is a two-pass industrial multitubular heat exchanger with a fixed tube bundle, corresponding to SACOME’s I-TFMP-2-I model , with an overall length of approximately 3,000 mm.
This product is associated with a high fouling tendency due to its tendency to polymerise above 28 °C. For this reason, fouling factors were considered to ensure proper operation even in the event of uncontrolled polymerisation, and easily removable heads were incorporated to allow periodic inspection and mechanical cleaning.
Designed to maintain control where the process is most sensitive.