Polystyrene production plant, reaction

Probably no part of the polystyrene production plant has changed as much over the last 30 years as the methods of process control. The early polystyrene processes required little process control because they were operated at reaction rates that were inherently stable. For polystyrene, a rule of thumb is that the reaction rate doubles with every increase in temperature of 10 °C. If the reaction is conducted at rates that evolve heat at a rate that requires a temperature... 

Divinylbenzene. This is a specialty monomer used primarily to make cross-linked polystyrene resins. The largest use of divinylbenzene (DVB) is in ion-exchange resins for domestic and industrial water softening, Ion-exchange resins are also used as solid acid catalysts for certain reactions, such as esterification. Divinylbenzene is manufactured by dehydrogenation of diethylbenzene, which is an internal product in the alkylation plant for ethylbenzene production,... 

West European production of benzoyl chloride in 1985 was around 15,0001. In addition to the dibenzoyl peroxide obtained through reaction with Na202 and used as a radical initiator for the production of plastics (PVC, polyethylene, polystyrene), benzoyl chloride is used mainly in the production of plant protection agents such as the Bayer herbicide metamitron. 

Like the denizens of the plant and animal kingdoms, plastics fall into distinguishable genera. The main subdivisions are thermoplastics and duroplastics. Thermoplastics are those that soften when heated, and so can be formed into the desired shapes, to harden again when cooled. They make up the greater part of the products of the plastics industry, and include predominantly polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). They are not cross-linked (or only very sparsely so), and they are all synthesized by the same type of chemical reaction, for all are made from monomers with carbon-carbon double bonds, which open up to create a chain. (This is not a universal rule, though some of the less familiar thermoplastics are made by different routes.)... 

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