(61a) Development of the Rotating Olefin Cracker for Decarbonized Production

Siemens Energy (SE) and Technip Energies (T.EN) are jointly developing the Rotating Olefins Cracker (ROC) technology to decarbonize the olefin production process. The ROC technology employs a dynamic reactor system that replaces conventional furnaces used for pyrolysis when manufacturing light olefins. This new and fundamentally unique technology employs a shockwave as the method of supplying heat to the cracking process.

The ROC technology offers driver flexibility, and when driven by electric-powered motors or hydrogen-fired gas turbines, the technology leads the path to decarbonize the process used to produce light olefins. The decarbonization impact is even more significant when the electric power or hydrogen fuel is derived from renewable sources. The ROC process, once fully commercialized, is also expected to have better first pass olefins yields with similar operating costs compared to the currently commercially available technologies.

The companies have already validated the fundamentals of the reactor technology in laboratory testing as well as performance testing of the first turbomachinery prototype with inert gas. The combination of laboratory testing and turbomachinery testing have validated the two essential building blocks of the technology. In this paper, the authors will present an overview of the ROC technology, the potential for process decarbonization, test results from both rounds of validation testing, and remaining steps towards pilot test in an operating plant.