Production of olefins from crude oil

In West Germany and Japan especially, processes have been developed to produce ethylene by cracking crude oil, to counter the dependence of ethylene production on the availability and price fluctuations of naphtha. Owing to the temperatures, which are needed in such processes, ethylene formation is accompanied by an aromatization, so that aromatics can also be obtained from these processes. 

The light oil consists principally of benzene, toluene and xylenes in terms of its composition, it resembles coke-oven benzole. The naphthalene fraction, recovered as a 4% yield of the crude oil, contains 42% naphthalene along with mainly methylnaphthalenes. 

1 Reactor 2 Quenching cooler 3 Steam generator 4 Fractionation column 5 Gas purification 

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