【Ten Years of Great Progress in Chemical Technology】The first successful operation of a domestic ethylene production plant using gas feedstocks for cracking was achieved between 2014 and 2021

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Ten years of rapid development in chemical technology – praise for China’s prosperity and strength. This is just a starting point; more participation will make things even more lively. HaiChuan becomes even better with your involvement; we welcome everyone to join in the forum discussions. Be careful with fire as the heat increases in July. ---------------------------------------------- On May 8, 2021, ***HaiGuoLongYou Petrochemical Co., Ltd. successfully commissioned its 450,000 tons per year light hydrocarbon cracking unit. Not long before that, on April 26, Ningbo Huatai Shengfu Polymer Materials Co., Ltd.’s 600,000 tons per year EPDM dehydrogenation plant was successfully commissioned. In just 10 days, good news came one after another from the plants built using process packages provided and engineering designs carried out by Sinopec Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as SEI); these are plants that produce ethylene through the pyrolysis of ethane, propane, and butane gases. This represents the first industrial application in China of domestic process technology for the production of ethylene via steam cracking of gaseous feedstocks. It not only demonstrates the reliability and advancement of this technology but also marks a new milestone for SEI’s independent ethylene production technology. 　　Currently, the cracking feedstocks for ethylene production mainly include ethane, propane, saturated LPG, naphtha, hydrogenated tail oil, and light diesel. Generally, the lighter the feedstock, the higher the yield of ethylene; therefore, when using ethane as the cracking material, the yield of ethylene is around 80% with the lowest energy consumption. Propane yields a slightly lower yield, while the yield of ethylene from naphtha is only about 30%. 　　In recent years, the sources of ethylene have shown a trend toward diversification. Our country relies mainly on liquid feedstocks such as naphtha, but it is rapidly moving toward lighter products. The production route using lightweight raw materials offers advantages such as high product yield, low production costs, minimal capital investment, low energy consumption, and reduced pollution. Lightening raw materials is an important approach for saving energy, improving efficiency, and achieving low-carbon environmental protection. With the extensive exploitation of associated gas from oil fields in the Middle East and shale oil in North America, the trend toward using lighter feedstocks has advanced rapidly in these regions; currently, over 90% of ethylene production facilities in the Middle East, and over 70% of steam cracking units in North America, utilize lighter feedstocks such as ethane, propane, and LPG. 　　To keep up with the new trends in the development of the ethylene industry, Sinopec SEI has specifically developed a CBL cracking furnace technology suitable for lightweight feedstocks. This technology offers great flexibility in terms of feedstocks and operation, along with high steam production, high thermal efficiency, long operating cycles, and low NOx emissions. Furthermore, the separation process utilizes SEI’s independently developed and superior ethylene recovery process (ART), specifically designed for the separation of pyrolysis gases derived from gas feedstocks such as ethane. This technology takes full account of the rational use of energy, reduces the need for equipment and lowers investment costs; it is characterized by simple operation and low energy consumption. The ART process has developed efficient cooling recovery technologies for various gaseous feedstocks. It employs a new type of quenching process that does not rely on oil scrubbers, and has innovated methods for separating heavy oils from the pyrolysis gases of gaseous feedstocks as well as for treating process water. Efficient separation processes such as pre-deethanization, pre-hydrogenation, deep cooling, and demethanization have been developed for the pyrolysis gases of ethane/propane feedstocks. Additionally, the low-pressure ethylene distillation technology combined with heat pumps has been optimized, resulting in a comprehensive set of technologies for producing ethylene from gaseous feedstocks through pyrolysis. 　　Industry experts say that the two ethylene production plants using Sinopec’s SEI technology have been successfully deployed in China for the first time, filling another gap in domestic technologies for the production of ethylene from gaseous feedstocks. This represents a concrete effort by Sinopec to accelerate its transition toward a green and low-carbon industry model and to develop world-class proprietary brands.