Cracking gases

Gas purifications H2O/olefin-containing cracked gas, natural gas, air, synthesis gas, etc sHica, alumina, zeoHte... 

Energy source Process designation Feedstock Typical cracked gas concentrations, mol % Acetylene Ethylene ... 

Hydrocarbon, typically natural gas, is fed into the reactor to intersect with an electric arc stmck between a graphite cathode and a metal (copper) anode. The arc temperatures are in the vicinity of 20,000 K inducing a net reaction temperature of about 1500°C. Residence time is a few milliseconds before the reaction temperature is drastically reduced by quenching with water. Just under 11 kWh of energy is required per kg of acetylene produced. Low reactor pressure favors acetylene yield and the geometry of the anode tube affects the stabiUty of the arc. The maximum theoretical concentration of acetylene in the cracked gas is 25% (75% hydrogen). The optimum obtained under laboratory conditions was 18.5 vol % with an energy expenditure of 13.5 kWh/kg (4). 

The cracked gas contains the products produced in the arc from the feedstock as well as the products obtained from the quench hydrocarbons. The Hquid quench feed amounts to 120 kg/1000 kWh and is composed of 25 kg C Hg, 60 kg and 35 kg iso-C H Q. 

Farbwerke Hoechst AG and Hbls AG have cooperated in the development of industrial-scale plasma units up to 10,000 kW (7). Yields of acetylene of 40—50 wt % with naphtha feedstock, and about 27 wt % with cmde oil feedstock, have been obtained. Acetylene concentration in the cracked gas is in the 10—15 vol % range. 

The composition of the cracked gas with methane and naphtha and the plant feed and energy requirements are given in Table 9. The overall yield of acetylene based on methane is about 24% (14). A single burner with methane produces 25 t/d and with naphtha or LPG produces 30 t/d. The acetylene is purified by means of /V-methy1pyrro1idinone. 

Table 9. BASF Process Consumptions and By-Product Yields and Cracked Gas Composition, ...

The flame-space walls are stainless steel and are water cooled. No mechanical coke scraper is required. A water quench cools the cracked gas stream rapidly at the poiat of maximum acetyleae and this is followed by a secondary water quench. The primary quench poiat can be adjusted for variation ia throughput, to accommodate the depeadeace of acetyleae yield oa resideace time ia the flame space. 

Puriftcatioa of the cracked gas is accompHshed by water scmbbiag, an electrostatic precipitator, and Hquid ammonia absorption. 

The cracked gas composition is shown ia Table 10 for the water queach operatioa (16). Oae thousand cubic meters of methane and 600 m of oxygen produce 1800 m of cracked gas. If a naphtha quench is used, additional yields are produced, consuming 130 kg of naphtha/1000 of methane... 

The regenerative nature of the Wulff operation permits the recovery of most of the sensible heat in the cracked gas. The gases leave the furnace at temperatures below 425°C, thus obviating the need for special high temperature alloys in the switch valve and piping system. 

The BASF process uses /V-methy1pyrro1idinone as the solvent to purify acetylene in the cracked gas effluent. Alow pressure prescmbbing is used to remove naphthalenes and higher acetylenes. The cracked gas is then compressed to 1 MPa (10 atm) and fed to the main absorption tower for acetylene removal. Light gases are removed from the top of this tower. 

Ethylene Stripping. The acetylene absorber bottom product is routed to the ethylene stripper, which operates at low pressure. In the bottom part of this tower the loaded solvent is stripped by heat input according to the purity specifications of the acetylene product. A lean DMF fraction is routed to the top of the upper part for selective absorption of acetylene. This feature reduces the acetylene content in the recycle gas to its minimum (typically 1%). The overhead gas fraction is recycled to the cracked gas compression of the olefin plant for the recovery of the ethylene. 

The total plant or train main process bottleneck will probably be identified by the licensor, such as the gasifier for a coal gasification train, the main exchanger for a mixed refrigerant LNG plant train, or the cracked gas compressors for an olefin plant. First and foremost, be sure that the licensor has not made the utility area a bottleneck. This can never be allowed since overloaded utilities could repeatedly shut the entire complex down on a crash basis, adversely impacting economics. 

The fuel vacuum pipe still is also used to recover cracked gas oil from the tar formed in residuum cracking (visbreaking) processes. In this service, it it frequently referred to as a vacuum, flash unit. Pipe stills designed for the production of asphalt are usually the fuel type of unit. 

Atmospheric gas oil has a relatively lower density and sulfur content than vacuum gas oil produced from the same crude. The aromatic content of gas oils varies appreciably, depending mainly on the crude type and the process to which it has been subjected. For example, the aromatic content is approximately 10% for light gas oil and may reach up to 50% for vacuum and cracked gas oil. Table 2-7 is a typical analysis of atmospheric and vacuum gas oils. ... 

The most important olefins and diolefins used to manufacture petrochemicals are ethylene, propylene, butylenes, and hutadiene. Butadiene, a conjugated diolefin, is normally coproduced with C2-C4 olefins from different cracking processes. Separation of these olefins from catalytic and thermal cracking gas streams could he achieved using physical and chemical separation methods. However, the petrochemical demand for olefins is much greater than the amounts these operations produce. Most olefins and hutadienes are produced hy steam cracking hydrocarbons. 

A typical ethane cracker has several identical pyrolysis furnaces in which fresh ethane feed and recycled ethane are cracked with steam as a diluent. Figure 3-12 is a block diagram for ethylene from ethane. The outlet temperature is usually in the 800°C range. The furnace effluent is quenched in a heat exchanger and further cooled by direct contact in a water quench tower where steam is condensed and recycled to the pyrolysis furnace. After the cracked gas is treated to remove acid gases, hydrogen and methane are separated from the pyrolysis products in the demethanizer. The effluent is then treated to remove acetylene, and ethylene is separated from ethane and heavier in the ethylene fractionator. The bottom fraction is separated in the deethanizer into ethane and fraction. Ethane is then recycled to the pyrolysis furnace. 

Plot the feed refractive index, API gravity, and aniline point. Determine any shift in the amount of cracked gas oil in the feed. 

A recent competitor to CVD in the planarization of silicon dioxide is the sol-gel process, where tetraethylorthosilicate is used to form spin-on-glass (SOG) films (see Appendix). This technique produces films with good dielectric properties and resistance to cracking. Gas-phase precipitation, which sometimes is a problem with CVD, is eliminated. 

Gas oils (petroleum), hydrodesulphurized coker heavy vacuum Gas oils (petroleum), steam cracked Gas oils (petroleum), hydrodesulphurized heavy vacuum Gas oils (petroleum), heavy vacuum... 

A cracker converts isobutyraldehyde at a pass yield of 80 per cent back to propylene, carbon monoxide and hydrogen by passage over a catalyst with steam. After separation of the water and unreacted isobutyraldehyde the cracked gas is recycled to the hydro-formylation reactor. The isobutyraldehyde is recycled to the cracker inlet. The operating conditions of the cracker are 275°C and 1 bar. 

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