Electrification of Steam Cracking and Related Challenges

With increasing societal and legislative pressure on our petrochemical industry, especially with regards to Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, there is a clear demand for viable technological solutions which effectively reduce GHG emissions from steam cracking. Far beyond merely storing and reutilizing CO₂, we need to directly reduce CO₂ emissions from steam cracking and correlated steam supply. A promising key technological option to do so is the electrification of equipment and utilization of renewable power from carbon neutral energy generation.

The paper and associated presentation provides a general overview on potential electrification measures specific to steam cracking technology and discusses the state of their developments. It deep-dives on selected electrification measures within the steam cracking process, such as the electrification of large turbo-compression machinery. Specific challenges and limits related to these concepts as well as fundamental pre-conditions for their technical application are assessed.

Some of the individual measures discussed are substantiated by practical examples and experiences from an existing European petrochemical complex, providing guidance for their technical feasibility in real world applications. This will include a review of reliability data based on long term experiences.

Finally, the paper elaborates on different combined overall plant electrification concepts over two distinct time horizons, i.e. mid-term solutions for partial electrification and long-term solutions for full electrification of steam cracking technology.