Steam cracking and methane to olefins

Energy use, CO2 emissions and production costs

Journal article (2008)

Authors

Tao Ren Universiteit Utrecht
Martin Patel Universiteit Utrecht
K. Blok Universiteit Utrecht
Affiliation
External organisation
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

01-01-2008

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Affiliation

External organisation

Abstract

While most olefins (e.g., ethylene and propylene) are currently produced through steam cracking routes, they can also possibly be produced from natural gas (i.e., methane) via methanol and oxidative coupling routes. We reviewed recent data in the literature and then compared the energy use, CO2 emissions and production costs of methane-based routes with those of steam cracking routes. We found that methane-based routes use more than twice as much process energy than state-of-the-art steam cracking routes do (the energy content of products is excluded). The methane-based routes can be economically attractive in remote, gas-rich regions where natural gas is available at low prices. The development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) may increase the prices of natural gas in these locations. Oxidative coupling routes are currently still immature due to low ethylene yields and other problems. While several possibilities for energy efficiency improvement do exist, none of the natural gas-based routes is likely to become more energy efficient or to lead to less CO2 emissions than steam cracking routes do.