Electric Heaters in downstream applications: Olefins Refinery

Ethylene is the simplest alkene, as it contains a double bond ethylene which is called an unsaturated hydrocarbon or an olefin. Olefins have tremendous uses such as production of ethylene glycol, surfactants, detergents, glycol ether, and most common film applications such as packing, carrier bags and trash liners. To meet the ever increasing demand for ethylene, sharp increases in production facilities have been added globally, particularly in the downstream areas of petrochemical refineries.

Steam cracking is the most common way of producing Ethylene in the petrochemical industry. In this process, gaseous or light liquid hydrocarbons are heated to between 750°C and 950°C, inducing numerous free radical reactions, followed by immediate quench to freeze the reactions. This process converts large hydrocarbons into smaller ones and introduces unsaturation. Ethylene is separated from the resulting complex mixture by repeated compression and distillation.

Modern ethylene plants use Electric Regeneration Heater and Electric Hydro-regeneration Heaters. Ethylene reacts with halogens to produce halogenated hydrocarbons but the reactions would be very slow unless a suitable catalyst is used. Electric heaters are used to regenerate the catalyst used in this process. Typical heater applications are “Catalyst Reduction”, “Catalyst Hot H2 stripping”, “Catalyst Oxidation”, “Reactivation” and “Reactivation - Burning”. All these applications are high temperature (in excess of 550°C) and pressure drop critical in nature. EXHEAT has expertise in designing such hazardous area Electric heaters and Control systems.

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