Ethylene Production

The priority in the petrochemical industry is to continually provide products of high quality, therefore it’s critical to control contamination in ethylene production. Contaminants in processing streams can compromise production efforts, foul major equipment operations, and cause unscheduled shutdowns. Removing contaminants early within the process helps reduce fouling-related issues in downstream process units.

Filtration and separation solutions can be used to help remove contaminants across ethylene production, covering the hot section and cold section of this process. Potential contaminant removal applications include feedstock treatment, quench water, caustic treating, acetylene converters, and fuel-gas systems. Using contaminant mitigation efforts can extend the service life of the steam cracker, reduce fouling in benzene strippers and heat exchangers and lengthen cycles between regeneration in molecular sieve dryers.

As industry growth drives new standards, advances in filtration and coalescer technology have been successfully applied in ethylene plants. Some of the filtration and separation solutions that we offer to enhance ethylene production include:

• Particle Filters: Removing solid particles from liquid streams can be achieved by disposable filters.
• Liquid/Liquid Coalescers: High-efficiency liquid-liquid (L/L) coalescer systems can process inlet discontinuous phase concentrations up to 10%. These units can effectively treat difficult-to-separate emulsions with interfacial tensions as low as 0.5 dynes/cm. These coalescers do not disarm in the presence of surfactants and can withstand an array of aggressive chemical applications over a wide range of temperatures. 
• Liquid/Gas Coalescers: High-efficiency liquid-gas (L/G) coalescer technology in ethylene production can remove liquid aerosols from gas streams. These can remove very fine droplets that often originate from condensation. 
• Oil Purifier: Purifying lubricating oils for gas compressors and other rotating equipment is critical when maintaining optimized operation. Water, solid particulate, and even gases can accumulate in the lube oil and cause detrimental effects. Excess contaminants can lead to unplanned shutdowns, high maintenance, and costs. An oil purifier is a cost-effective way to reduce the risk of lube-oil issues.

Our superior filtration and separation solutions improve contaminant control allowing for highly efficient ethylene processing in plants. 

Learn more about our solutions for ethylene production in our hot section and cold section pages.