Emissions from Ethane Cracking

If we assume that all utility steam is raised from heat exchange of hot furnace gases and that excess steam is used to generate all of the power required by the cracking plant, then carbon emissions come from two major sources  

The estimated emissions from these two sources in ethane cracking are set out in Table 7.6  

For the OPEN system all of the fuel used is assumed to be fuel oil. Including an operating allowance, this produces about 1 million toimes of carbon dioxide for the production of 0.5 million toimes of ethylene. 

On a unit basis this is approximately 2 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of olefins (as ethylene plus propylene). Operational losses add a further 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide making the total emissions of carbon dioxide per tonne of olefin an estimated 2.159 t/t. 

If the cost of carbon emission is 35/tonne , then the additional cost is 75.55 million which lifts the ethylene production cost from 726/t to 801/t. 

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Table 7.6 Estimated Carbon Emissions from Ethane Cracking...

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