Project

Power-to-olefins: Electrified steam cracking and plasma booster

Code
179N03421
Duration
01 March 2021 → 28 February 2025
Funding
Regional and community funding: IWT/VLAIO
Promotor-spokesperson
Research disciplines
  • Engineering and technology
    • Polymer processing
Keywords
olefins Reactor complex
 
Project description
This P2O project aims to drastically reduce CO2 emissions in the production of olefins by replacing the incinerators, where 90% of the CO2 emissions originate from this process, with a combination of two new reactor concepts. We will demonstrate that this combination not only leads to a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions, but can also increase the yield of valuable light olefins from naphtha cracking by converting the methane to olefins. Note that for a typical steam cracker complex it is assumed that an increase of 0.1 weight percent corresponds to an added profit of several million euros. All this can be achieved because the flow-to-heat reactor design avoids the combustion of methane as a heat source and is characterized by a much shorter residence time, while the plasma-based reactor technology is able to additionally convert the non-consumed methane into valuable light olefin