ETHYLENE

Ethylene is the backbone of the petrochemical industry because it being the most important feedstock in terms of volume and number of derivatives.. Feedstock for ethylene are either refinery products like naphtha and gas oil, or products associated with the production of natural gas, such as ethane and propane.

Ethylene is produced in the petrochemical industry by steam cracking. In this process, gaseous or light liquid hydrocarbons are heated to 750 950 C, inducing numerous free radical reactions. Generally, in these reactions, large hydrocarbons break down in to smaller ones and saturated hydrocarbons become unsaturated. The result of this process is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons in which ethylene is one of the principal components. The mixture is separated by repeated compression and distillation

In oil refineries large hydrocarbon molecules are cracked into smaller ones. Zeolite catalyst allows the cracking to be achieved at a lower temperature. Most ethylene is made by steam cracking a hydrocarbon feedstock at 815-900 degrees C and 2.0 atm.

In cracking, the cracked gas stream is compressed to about 35 atmospheres pressure to remove condensates and acid gases (hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide) by scrubbing the stream. The resulting stream is dried and cooled to 95-130 degrees C. The gas portion, consisting primarily of hydrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide, is purified to remove hydrogen; the remainder is burned as plant fuel. Of the liquid byproducts, ethane and propane are recycled; acetylene and propene are hydrogenated to ethylene and propylene, respectively. Ethylene is separated from propylene and other co-products by distillation. The yield of ethylene depends on the feedstock and somewhat on the cracking conditions.

Some ethylene is also recovered from refinery gases and catalytic cracking and reforming units. Typically, ethylene comprises about 20 wt. % of the refinery gas from which liquefied petroleum gases (LPG; primarily propane and heavier hydrocarbons) have been removed. Most of the ethylene potentially available from refinery sources is not recovered because of the cost.

END USE The market breakdown of ethylene end-use is as follows.

o o o o o o o o

Low density polyethylene, (31.5%) High density polyethylene (26.0%) Ethylene dichloride/vinyl chloride (13.2%) Ethylene oxide (14.1%) Ethyl benzene (7.2%) Alpha olefins (2.7%) Vinyl acetate (1.3%) Acetaldehyde (1.0%)