• Home
  • About
  • Services
  • Ethylene Training
  • Contact Us
  • Blog
  • Olefins Basics
Apex PetroConsultants, LLC

Energy & Digital Transformation – Success isn’t Given!

12/22/2020

5 Comments

 
Picture
​Steam cracking is an energy-intensive process. Most ethylene plants are looking for opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce their utility costs to stay competitive. This, in combination with digital transformation, is one of the key focus areas for the industry.
Typical specific energy consumption can vary between 3,500 to 8,000 kcals/kg (6,300 to 14,500 Btu/lb) of product ethylene. Cracking furnaces typically contribute between 45 to 65% of energy consumption in an ethylene plant. The remainder is contributed by the recovery section, including the main compressors.
The level of energy consumption and variability of the split is dictated by many factors. The main ones include:
  • Feedstock and cracking severity
  • Feed and product conditions
  • Level of integration, both hydrocarbons, and utilities
    • Steam/power system integration has a significant impact
  • Process technology and age of the facility
  • Operation and maintenance approaches and practices
  • Asset utilization including reliability and availability
In addition, overall energy consumption figures need to include consumption for intermittent operations (like furnace decoke, dryer regeneration, etc.), flaring (normal, upsets, maintenance activities, start-ups/shutdown, etc.), vents/leakages, etc.
Generic benchmarks may provide a directional indication about the relative comparison to peers in the grouping, it is normally an insufficient approach for determining the viability and success of the programs to either strategic approach for digital transformation or to achieve environmental/energy efficiency and sustainability targets. Another weak area for external and internal benchmarks is understanding and determination of asset capability. A simplistic approach that a facility could only produce as much as it has done historically can lead to an underestimation and underutilization of its capability, therefore influencing not only the benchmarks but also operation and maintenance discipline. A systematic approach based on an understanding of all aspects of process technology/design, main equipment limits/performance, plant data along with operation/maintenance approach, etc. can not only provide a meaningful baseline but also determine the strategic approach for energy and digital transformation.
We, at Apex PetroConsultants, have a successful track record of helping ethylene plants not only determine the baseline but also help develop strategic approaches for a successful outcome. We work together with owner teams to turn these ambitious goals and objectives into reality.
5 Comments
Edward link
3/16/2022 04:31:27 am

What an exquisite article! Your post is very helpful right now. Thank you for sharing this informative one.

Reply
Sanjeev Kapur
3/16/2022 08:36:20 am

Thanks a lot Edward, glad that you found it helpful!

Reply
Miah link
4/26/2022 09:45:43 am

Thanks for sharing this useful information! Hope that you will continue with the kind of stuff you are doing.

Reply
Zoe link
5/3/2022 09:52:13 am

Nice article! Thanks for sharing this informative post. Keep posting!

Reply
Asher link
5/23/2022 10:07:52 am

This article is very informative, especially for us business owners! Keep sharing!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Sanjeev Kapur is Principal Consultant at Apex PetroConsultants. He focuses on consulting/advising olefins based petrochemical businesses. He is a leading expert in petrochemicals and integration.

    Archives

    February 2023
    May 2022
    January 2022
    October 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

© Apex PetroConsultants, LLC