(124c) Energy Efficiency Improvement and Cost Reduction in Olefins Plants

Olefins production in steam crackers is one of the most energy intensive processes in the petrochemical industry. Significant improvements have been made over the years but energy is still a major cost component and so operators and licensors continually strive to reduce the energy related costs in order to improve profitability. This paper has been structured to provide insight into the main elements of an energy improvement program for ethylene plants and the tools and methodologies used to minimise energy costs. How these are integrated to optimise the energy equation is illustrated by means of a Case Study.

This paper will cover following topics:

? Benchmarking the energy efficiency of ethylene plant ? how plants worldwide compare ? Gap Analysis ? identifying the areas of inefficiency and quantifying their individual contributions ? Tools Available to Assist in Evaluation o Benchmarking o Process Simulators o Pinch Technology o Utility Optimisers ? Potential Areas for Improvement o Cracking Furnaces o Heat Recovery & Compression o Recovery Section o Heat integration o Steam and Power System o Cogeneration and gas turbine integration o Site-wide integration ? Results of a Case Study