Ethylene is a basic building block of the chemical industry and is the link between chemical companies and petroleum refiners. An ethylene plant is often called an olefin plant, because of the fact that the end products are olefins. The ethylene or olefin plant will yield mostly ethylene, but will also break the feedstock into a number of other usable by-products, including propylene, butadiene, and gasoline. The initial process is cracking, which means that the feedstock is heated to the point that the energy transfer from heat is enough to “crack” the molecules into several smaller molecules. The feedstock is diverted to multiple furnaces and then further divided between multiple passes before entering the furnace. In the convection section, the feedstock is mixed with dilution steam in order to reduce coking and improve end-product yield. This mixture is preheated using high-pressure steam before entering the radiant section. The radiant section has several burners which raise the temperature of the feed to 750-850 °C (1380- 1560 °F), ensuring a high enough temperature for cracking to occur. It is important that the residence time is kept short to prevent further reactions from occurring, which would decrease the desired product yield. After exiting the furnace, the cracked gases quickly enter the transfer line exchanger where they are indirectly cooled to prevent further reactions from occurring. Hereafter the cooled gases are quenched with oil and/or water. This is followed by product fractionation, which includes distillation, and other processes for separating recoverable products.
In our Group we have the ability to leverage our long-standing relationship with many well-known manufacturers to serve you with the quality materials that meet the ever-more stringent environmental specifications refineries are facing. We supply the necessary carbon steel products and a full range of chrome moly grades that are required for ethane cracking furnaces. We offer global coordination of specialized fabrication and an experienced Downstream team that oversees the procurement to the delivery project lifecycle
