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Chemical giants BASF, Sabic and Linde have begun construction of the world’s first large-scale electric-heated steam cracker demonstration plant, which could significantly reduce emissions.
By using renewable energy to generate electricity instead of natural gas, the new technology has the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 90 percent in one of the most energy-intensive production processes in the chemical industry, compared to technologies commonly used today.
The demonstration plant will be fully integrated into one of the existing steam crackers at BASF’s integrated plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany. It will test two different heating concepts, processing around 4 tonnes of hydrocarbons per hour and consuming 6 MW of renewable electricity/electricity. The start-up date for the demonstration plant is 2023.
new technology
With BASF’s new technology, Sabic and Linde aim to develop a full-scale commercial production plant that can significantly reduce CO2 emissions compared to today’s technology.
The investment costs for the pilot will be borne by BASF and Sabic, and the demonstration plant will be operated by BASF. Linde is the engineering, procurement and construction partner for the project and will commercialize the developed technology in the future.
The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action has allocated 14.8 million euros ($14.63 million) to the project under its “Decarbonization of Industry” funding program to help meet the challenges posed by current framework conditions and energy costs.
Electrification of Steam Crackers
“BASF has the entrepreneurial drive to achieve the energy transition, and the electrification of the steam cracker is very important for us,” said Dr. Martin Brudermüller, Chairman of the Executive Board of BASF Europe. “We are therefore delighted that BASF has received project funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, which shows that our approach is also supported by policymakers.”
Yousef Al-Benyan, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sabic, said: “Our vision is to transform our business and help address pressing global challenges through effective carbon management. This project is critical to all petrochemicals globally in our drive towards low carbon emitting processes. The industry has enormous potential. As we jointly announce the milestone of commencement of construction, we hope that our tripartite collaboration will inspire more collaborations, ultimately enabling the world to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions through a circular carbon economy.”
Cooperation benefits
“This project demonstrates how global companies can successfully collaborate by combining their expertise in technology development, EPC execution and operations. The timely delivery of the demonstration plant will be a major milestone on the road to delivering sustainable solutions to the petrochemical industry. We are proud to be part of this ground-breaking project,” said Jürgen Nowicki, executive vice president of Linde AG and CEO of Linde.
The demonstration plant is designed to demonstrate continuous olefin production using electricity as a heat source. The design of the plant made it possible to test two heating concepts in parallel: direct heating, which applies electrical current directly to the process tubes inside the reactor; indirect heating, which uses radiant heat from heating elements placed around the tubes. Testing both concepts provides the flexibility to respond to different client and site requirements.
Steam crackers play a central role in the production of basic chemicals, requiring large amounts of energy to break down hydrocarbons into olefins and aromatics. Typically, the reaction is carried out in a furnace at a temperature of about 850 degrees Celsius. Today, these temperatures are achieved by burning fossil fuels. The project aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by powering the process with electricity. — arab trade news agency
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