Pyrolysis/cracking section

Olefin plants all have two main parts the pyrolysis or cracking section and the purification or distillation section. The ethane cracker in Figure 5—2 has a pyrolysis (from the Greek, pyros, fire) section that consists of a gas-fired furnace where the cracking takes place. The newer individual furnaces can each handle more than 400 million pounds per year of ethane feed. 

Fig. 8. Photographs of C/C composites after the first carbonization with decreasing amounts of matrix pyrolysis cracks, due to decreasing cross-sectional shrinkage of the matrix precursor and decreasing adhesion between fibre and matrix precursor.

The feedstock is passed through the pyrolysis or cracking section using a very short residence time of 0.1 to 0.6 seconds, with the relatively longer residence times required for a heavy feedstock such as naphtha. However,... 

Propane cracking is similar to ethane except for the furnace temperature, which is relatively lower (longer chain hydrocarbons crack easier). However, more by-products are formed than with ethane, and the separation section is more complex. Propane gives lower ethylene yield, higher propylene and butadiene yields, and significantly more aromatic pyrolysis gasoline. Residual gas (mainly H2 and methane) is about two and half times that produced when ethane is used. Increasing the severity... 

This section concerns catalytic processes that transform chemicals from renewables by C-C bond breaking. Among these are thermochemical processes, such as pyrolysis and also gasification, catalytic reactions, such as catalytic cracking and different reforming reactions, and decarbonylation and decarboxylation reactions. Many of these reactions occur simultaneously, particularly in the thermochemical processes. Another technically important class of C-C bond breaking reactions is the fermentation processes, however, they will not be considered in this section since they do not involve heterogeneous catalysis. 

Figure 7.13 presents a simplified flowsheet, which concentrates the essential features the balanced VCM technology, as conceptually developed in the previous sections, but this time with the three plants and recycles in place chlorination of ethylene (Rl), thermal cracking of EDC (R2) and oxyclorinahon of ethylene (R3). As mentioned in Section 7.3, from plantwide control three impurities are of particular interest (I]) chloroprene (nbp 332.5 K), (12) trichloroethylene (nbp 359.9K), and (13) tetrachloromethane (nbp 349.8). I, and 12 are bad , since the first can polymerize and plug the equipment, while the second favors the coke formation by EDC pyrolysis. On the contrary, I3 has a catalytic effect on the VCM formation, in some patents being introduced deliberately. 

Ethane enters the pyrolysis section, which comprises a series of cracking furnaces. The ethane is heated as quickly as possible to the cracking temperature and maintained at this temperature for the minimum residence time. In order to lower the hydrocarbon partial pressure and mitigate coke forming in the pyrolysis tubes, steam is added to the ethane prior to entering the pyrolysis section (not shown). 

One of the issues that concern liquid feedstock cracking operations is a higher rate of fouling. This is not only a consequence of heavier coke forming precursors, but also as a consequence of long lived free radicals which act as agents for the formation of a polymer (often referred to as pop-corn polymer) in the primary fractionator and downstream units. For instance, free radicals based on styrene or indene have sufficiently long half-lives to pass from the pyrolysis section into the primary fractionator. These can concentrate in this unit and produce polymer (free radical polymerisation) when sufficient amounts of suitable olefins are present, in particular styrene itself and di-olefins such as cyclo-pentadiene or butadiene. 

The semi-continuous type of reactor with the large capacity was comprised of a pyrolysis chamber, a catalytic cracking chamber and a separation and purifying section. The feed plastic material was melted and decomposed in the pyrolysis chamber held at the ambient pressure and at the temperature 723-783 K, and fed to the catalytic cracking chamber. A reflux condenser was used to separate and purify the products formed in the chamber and individual factors were obtained using fractional distillation apparatus [26]. Different types of reactors are being utilized depending on the type of feed and the expected products from the pyrolysis. 

Toluene. The sources of toluene lie primarily in the catalytic reforming of selected petroleum fractions rich in naphthenes or in the recovery of toluene contained in aromatic concentrate (pyrolysis gasoline) produced as a byproduct of ethylene manufacture—mostly from naphtha/gas oil cracking. U.S. production and pricing for benzene and the aromatics discussed in Sections... 

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