(116a) Justifying Energy Savings in Ethylene Crackers in a Low Energy Price Environment

Global energy prices have dropped to their lowest level in a decade and have taken with them the days of easy justification for energy improvements. In specific countries where energy prices are still subsidised, this is a familiar situation in everyday energy management. The subject of this paper is the different ways that have been used to improve the economics of energy projects in low price situations in order to make viable project investments.

Case studies will be used to illustrate such methods as:

• Debottlenecking energy critical equipment to increase throughput,
• Overcoming an energy cap to improve severity and product yield,
• Making energy savings to meet legislative targets, and
• Using energy reduction to justify changing catalysts to improve yield.