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Saudi petrochemicals giant Sabic has inaugurated the world’s first demo plant incorporating steam cracker furnaces powered by renewable energy in Germany, according to a statement. The plant was built with technology from German chemical company BASF and US-German industrial gases giant Linde.
What we know: The demonstration plant sees electricity used as a heat source for the production of olefin — a key hydrocarbon used to make plastics and synthetic fiber — at BASF’s Verbund site in Ludwigshafen. The technology could potentially cut emissions from the energy-intensive production process by at least 90%, according to Sabic. The plant has two separate furnaces fired by 6 MW of energy generated from renewable sources and can process around 4 tons of hydrocarbon per hour.
Steam cracker furnaces for dummies: In the chemicals industry, steam cracker furnaces are used to break longer hydrocarbons into shorter chains used to manufacture chemical and polymer products including plastic, rubber and detergents as well as raw materials used in the clothing and packaging industries. It’s a crazily energy-intensive process, relying on natural gas to achieve temperatures of around 850°C.
Looking ahead: Linde will look to commercialize the technologies in the future under new trademark Starbridge, hoping to sell into the petchem industry’s drive to reduce its carbon footprint.
REMEMBER- Sabic is on a decarbonization spree: Sabic signed a memorandum of understanding in December that will see it and its affiliate Scientific Design (SD) work with Linde Engineering to explore how to decarbonize SD’s ethylene glycol process, which is used under license at glycol manufacturing plants around the world. Its efforts come under a pledge in 2021 to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. It has set an interim target of lowering greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1 and 2) by 20% by 2030.
