Ethylene production is one of the major areas in which Pall Corporation has been working with leading fuels and petrochemicals companies to make significant advancements to improve fluid contamination management to achieve process optimization, efficiency improvement, and cost savings. Our customers rely on our worldwide and local expertise and technical support, enabling them to choose the best technologies to optimize their operating costs.
One critical application in the ethylene production process is feedstock purification. Contaminated gas or liquid feed can lead to high-cost furnace repairs and increased environmental emissions.
Typical impacts of feed purification are:
- Furnace tubes protection against coke precursors (iron, salts etc.) and fouling
- Contribution to extended furnace campaign
- Increase in overall production (downtime reduction)
- Maintenance Reduction
- Energy saving
The overall positive impact leads some major licensors and ethylene producers to include the feed filters and coalescer systems in their operations, both on gas and liquid feeds.
Many ethylene manufacturing plants have observed significant adverse impacts of feed contamination on their furnace run times, noting up to 70% reductions. Conversely, they have also recognized the positive effects of feed purification.
Process improvements often result from optimizing several parameters, making it difficult to measure the exact impact of each.
Naphtha Crackers and Related Positive Impacts Linked to the Feed Purification
| American Naphtha Cracker #1 |
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| American Naphtha Cracker #2 |
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| American Naphtha Cracker #3 |
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| European Naphtha Cracker #1 & 2 |
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| European Naphtha Cracker #3 |
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| Chinese Naphtha Cracker |
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Customer benefits
The significant benefits of using high-efficiency liquid/liquid coalescers and absolute-rated filters include the following:
- Reduction of fouling in the furnace convection zone
- Extension of the run time length of the furnaces between de-coking
- Increase in the useful life of furnace tubes
- Lowering of emissions
This technology also enables ethylene plants to use more contaminated, alternate feedstocks such as Naptha brought in by marine transport or Light Cat-cracked Naptha (LCN/FCC gasoline) from refineries. The payback period for the capital investment in the high-efficiency liquid/liquid coalescers associated with the prefilter systems was estimated to be less than one year.
Conclusion
High-efficiency liquid/liquid coalescers and absolute-rated prefilters (99.98% efficiency) improve steam cracker productivity and reduce emissions in ethylene plants by decreasing de-coking frequency. In crackers fed with barged Naphtha, the high-efficiency liquid/liquid coalescers removed fouling and coke-generating contaminants, including sodium. Prefilters and coalescers successfully protected the new generation of furnaces at several ethylene plants.
Contact our filtration team today to discuss how we can help you achieve your goals