Crude oil to ethylene: just like "wheat" directly making "bread"

In 2021, Sinopec's "Ten-Train" key research project "Technology Development and Industrial Application of Light Crude Oil Cracking to Ethylene" successfully completed the industrialization test in Tianjin Petrochemical, achieving a breakthrough in the domestic industrial application of crude oil steam cracking technology

The technology was developed and engineered by Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry and Engineering Construction Company, and industrial tests were carried out in Tianjin Petrochemical, realizing the stable operation of the cracking furnace with light crude oil as raw material

Accelerate the overcoming of core technologies, and strive to realize the transformation from fuel-driven to chemical product-driven

In recent years, driven by the dual drive of carbon neutrality and electric revolution, China's energy consumption structure has undergone tremendous changes, the consumption of refined oil products has gradually shrunk, and the refining capacity has shown a structural surplus

Ethylene is the basic raw material of chemical products, known as the "mother of the petrochemical industry", and one of the important symbols to measure the development level of a country's petrochemical industry

However, due to the wide distillation range, high final boiling point, and high content of colloids and unsaturated hydrocarbons in crude oil, the crude oil steam cracking technology requires preheating in the convection section, separation process system and control design of light and heavy components, anti-coking in the radiation section and There are many difficulties in the optimization of cracking process control

"The crude oil steam cracking technology is one of the important routes of 'oil conversion'.

Bravely shouldering the heavy burden, Sinopec opens the road of crude oil cracking technology research and development

To conquer the core technology, Sinopec has been deployed for a long time

　　During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, "Research on the Technical Scheme of Light Crude Oil Steam Cracking for Ethylene Production" has been included in the subject of scientific and technological development
.
In the process of research and development, the scientific research team is problem-oriented, and analyzes the whole process of crude oil pretreatment, vaporization, cracking reaction and product separation, focusing on the anti-coking in the convection section, the separation of light and heavy components, and the cracking performance of wide-cut oil products.
, through experiments and simulations, the process optimization of the whole process of crude oil steam cracking was developed, and related models were designed
.
For different types of crude oil, they optimized the key process control points of crude oil steam cracking through research on impurity distribution, separation of light and heavy components and evaluation test of cracking performance of each component, which provided data support for the engineering design of the overall technology.
The mature cracking and coking suppression technology such as twisted fin tube to enhance heat transfer solves the problem of coking in the long-term operation of the cracking furnace
.
So far, the conditions for industrial application of crude oil steam cracking to ethylene technology have been preliminarily met
.

　　In April 2020, with the support of the Science and Technology Department of the Group Corporation, relevant scientific research, design, and production units such as Beihua Research Institute, Engineering Construction Company, and Tianjin Petrochemical successfully "assembled" to jointly tackle key problems in the industrial application of crude steam cracking to olefins
.
After many discussions, it was finally decided to carry out the industrial test of crude oil cracking based on the No.
6 cracking furnace of Tianjin Petrochemical
.
In December of the same year, "development and industrial application of complete sets of technology for direct cracking of crude oil to ethylene" was included in Sinopec's "Ten Trains" key research projects
.

　　On February 25, 2021, the renovation of the cracking furnace plant was started, and the handover was completed on June 30
.
Subsequently, with the efforts of many parties, the test process advanced rapidly: on August 11, the cracking furnace was ignited and heated up, and the adaptive feeding test was carried out; on August 24, the blended crude oil was put into operation, and the cracking furnace was successfully started once; It ran stably for 36 days and achieved a successful industrial test
.

　　Unique "Sinopec solution", the second company in the world in crude oil cracking technology

　　The data of the industrial test shows that: the unit is running stably, the key process parameters and equipment in the crude oil cracking process have been fully verified, crude oil with different API degrees can be directly steam cracked, and the yield of diene is significantly better than the expected value; the crude oil vaporization rate, crude oil The influence of impurities on the downstream and the coking rate of the furnace tube are controllable, and the change of the control amount of the cracking furnace operation cycle is consistent with the design
.
The success of this test not only obtained the basic industrial data of crude oil steam cracking technology to ethylene, but also verified the reliability of the crude oil steam cracking process scheme independently developed by Sinopec
.

　　It is estimated that using this technology, for every 1 million tons of crude oil processed, nearly 500,000 tons of chemicals can be produced, including nearly 400,000 tons of high value-added products such as ethylene, propylene, light aromatics and hydrogen
.
Sinopec became the second company in the world to successfully realize the industrial application of this technology after ExxonMobil
.

　　Fortunately, in April 2021, the crude oil catalytic cracking technology independently developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, another "oil conversion" technology route, also achieved the world's first industrial application in Yangzhou, with a chemical yield of about 50%.
Make China the leader of the world's crude oil catalytic cracking technology route
.
The combination of these two technologies is expected to increase the total amount of chemicals produced from crude oil to more than 70%, which will become an economically feasible technical route for "oil conversion" in the future
.

　　"In the next step, Sinopec will use this industrial test as a blueprint to continue the development and engineering design of Tahe Refinery's one million tons of crude oil steam cracking to ethylene complete technology development and engineering design, forming a demonstration unit from crude oil directly to chemicals, which will serve as a major source of energy for China Petrochemical Co.
, Ltd.
The transformation and development of industry has drawn a new
paradigm.
" Wang Zizong introduced
.
(Ouyang Sufang)

　　In the large-scale ethylene project planned in the future, the crude oil steam cracking technology will be included in the important technology comparison and selection scheme, which will provide strong support for alleviating the contradiction between supply and demand in the industry, assisting the transformation and upgrading of enterprises, and making an important contribution to the realization of the "dual carbon" goal
.

　　The successful first industrial application of crude oil steam cracking technology has made Sinopec the second company in the world to successfully realize the industrial application of this technology, which is of great significance for the transformation and upgrading of the petrochemical industry and helping to achieve the "dual carbon" goal
.

(Ouyang Sufang)

From: Sinopec News