Sarnia Site

Ontario, Canada

Located in Sarnia-Lambton’s Chemical Valley, about 180 miles (288 kilometers) west of Toronto, INEOS NOVA's Sarnia site supplies styrene to INEOS NOVA's polystyrene operations and customers in North America.    

The Sarnia facility had been operating since 1977, when NOVA Chemicals purchased the facility in 1988.  In the late 90’s, a significant project to upgrade the facility with new equipment and state-of-the-art technology increased annual production of styrene monomer to approximately 950 million pounds  (431 killotonnes) of styrene monomer annually.

Styrene Monomer Production

The ethylene feedstock required for the styrene process arrives at the site by pipeline from NOVA Chemical's Corunna site, as does most of the second feedstock, benzene.  Other third-party producers in the area also supply benzene to the site.

Styrene is manufactured in a two-stage process.  First, benzene and ethylene are reacted to form ethylbenzene.  Ethylbenzene is then dehydrogenated to form styrene.

End Products

Styrene is the raw material used to manufacture polystyrene, a common plastic used in the manufacture of food containers and utensils, medical devices, toys and compact discs.  As a basic petrochemical building block for the plastics, synthetic rubber and latex industries, styrene is used in the manufacture of thousands of other products in the construction, recreation and transportation industries worldwide.The plant has approximately 100 employees.  The facility is ISO 9001:2000 registered. 

INEOS NOVA

872 Tashmoo Ave

Sarnia, Ontario

N7T 8A3

Canada

Tel: +1 519 339 7339

Fax: +1 519 339 7301