Domestic production of key components for ethylene cracking furnaces in China and South Korea’s petrochemical industry

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Since its deployment in April, the lower cone of the linear quench heat exchanger, a key component of ethylene cracking furnaces in Chinese and Korean petrochemical industries, has been operating stably for half a year with performance meeting the required standards. Its cost is only 1/5 of that of imported products, which holds the potential to help companies save over 15 million yuan in equipment replacement costs. 　　It is understood that the lower cone, a key component of the linear quench heat exchanger in ethylene plant cracking furnaces, faces high safety risks due to operation in high-temperature and high-stress environments, and thus requires regular replacement. However, the core manufacturing technologies and sealing solutions for this component are strictly controlled by foreign manufacturers, resulting in extremely high procurement costs. 　　To overcome this critical challenge and reduce operational costs, the team of experts in static equipment from Sino-Korea Petrochemical Equipment Engineering Department formed a task force in 2023 to launch research projects aimed at localizing the production of this component. Through technical efforts, the team successfully developed a domestic lower cone that is fully compatible with imported quenching heat exchangers, which was first applied to Cracker No. 6. To date, this domestically produced component has been operating smoothly for half a year, with all test indicators showing normal results. 　　The success of localization has brought significant economic benefits. The unit price of domestic lower cones is about 10,000 yuan, less than 20% of that of imported products. Based on this calculation, the total cost of replacing this component for a single pyrolysis furnace dropped from 4.2 million yuan to 840,000 yuan, representing a reduction of 80%. All 5 similar cracking units at Sino-Korea Petrochemical have been upgraded using domestic components, resulting in cost savings of over 15 million yuan and reducing the pressure on equipment operation and maintenance costs.