(112f) Starbridge™ - Commercial Design and Implementation of Electric Cracking Furnaces

Cracking furnaces are the largest greenhouse gas emission source in petrochemical plants. The electrification of these traditionally fossil fired units is a highly anticipated technology development with the potential to reduce direct CO₂ emissions from steam cracking by more than 95%.

In April 2024, the operation of the world’s first industrial demonstration plant for two electric cracking furnaces at BASF in Ludwigshafen (Germany) has started up, and the consortium partners BASF, SABIC, and LINDE have already collected and analyzed operational results from several thousand hours of incident free electrical cracking.

This conference contribution will update on these operational results and the learnings gained from demonstration plant construction and operation relevant to large-scale commercial design. In parallel to the operation of the industrial demonstration plant, the scale-up activities have been sufficiently matured to enable large-scale commercial offerings. The authors will give a detailed insight into the commercial design of both heating principles.

Finally, favorable application scenarios and showcases for the STARBRIDGE™ technology will be showcased and commercial decision drivers for electrified reactor technologies will be discussed, enabling the audience to better understand the implementation potential of this technology.