Ethylene Quench Water Filtration

In ethylene production, failure to mitigate contamination of processing streams can result in poor product quality, fouling of equipment, and costly maintenance downtime. 

Contamination in Quench Water

The reaction that forms ethylene from gas or naphtha feeds produces the liquid hydrocarbon byproduct pyrolysis gasoline (py-gas). After the ethylene cracker, heavy oil may be present from carryover into the quench water along with the py-gas. To re-use the quench water for steam production, it must be processed to remove hydrocarbon contaminants, including py-gas. Failure to properly treat and filtration of quench water will cause fouling of heat exchangers and boilers, lead to poor separation in stripping units, and increase energy consumption.

When applied to quench water applications, Pall separation, and filtration technology is proven to extend the service life of the stream stripper between cleanings, reduce fouling and maintenance of heat exchangers, lower steam use, and yield higher recovery of py-gas. Pall prefilters efficiently remove solid contaminants from quench water, while liquid/liquid coalescer systems break oil emulsions to reduce oil levels in the final water to less than 20 ppmw even if the interfacial tension is as low as 6 dynes/cm.

The horizontal PhaseSep® EL Liquid/Liquid Coalescer effectively removes py-gasoline from quench water, which improves the efficiency of the steam system while also reducing operating and maintenance costs. The vertical PhaseSep® EL Liquid/Liquid Coalescer separates water from py-gas, minimizing the carryover of water for improved product quality. 

Case Studies related to Filtration of Quench Water in Ethylene Production

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