Summer supply solution has the ‘chill factor’

Chilled water was pumped through the pipes surrounding the tank.

Unseasonably hot conditions in Europe in the summer of 2010 posed exceptional operational challenges for deliveries of styrene monomer (SM) from the Shell plant in the Netherlands to a customer site in Italy.

As the early summer warmed up rapidly, the temperature of the SM being prepared for despatch was also rising. Temperature readings taken just after the intermodal bulk tank containers used to transport the SM were loaded showed that the product temperature was already significantly higher than normal.

With a long multi-modal delivery journey involved and sustained high daytime temperatures, there was real potential for compromised product quality and elevated safety risks. The SM had to be kept at or below a maximum of 25°C in order to prevent polymerisation and any impact on quality or safety.

Through collaboration with Shell’s transport provider, a temporary cooling arrangement was put in place that ensured the product arrived in good, safe condition.

A simple but effective ‘chilling’ treatment was devised by utilising the web of pipes that wrap around the tank containers. These pipes are typically used to raise product temperature and so decrease viscosity but in this case, instead of steam, chilled water was pumped through the pipes.

This brought the product temperature down to below 15°C, providing sufficient headroom for the inevitable temperature rise during the long delivery journey.

It took two days to ‘chill’ each tank container before it was dispatched, but through careful planning and adjustments to delivery schedules, the cooling operation was able to maintain safe continuity of supply to Italy right through the hot summer.

Note: Shell has many years' experience in handling SM and has developed guidelines for its safe storage and handling that have been adopted at an industry level.

This feature was added to the Innovations section in November 2010

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