Steam cracking technology
Adding value through sustainable and smart technologies
Steam crackers are large and complex units at the heart of petrochemical complexes, producing the important building blocks ethylene, propylene, butadiene, aromatics and acetylene. They involve cracking hydrocarbon feedstocks in the presence of steam and at temperatures of between 800° and 870°C. The resulting cracked gas is separated into valuable products such as ethylene, propylene, acetylene, butadiene, pyrolysis gasoline and BTX, all according to the specifications required for downstream processes.
The technology for steam cracking was developed over 70 years ago. Since then, we have continually scaled it up and optimized it to fully meet today's and tomorrow’s most stringent safety, economic and environmental/climate protection requirements. We are proud that we were the first contractor to license and build a series of ethylene plants with capacities of 1,500 kilotons/annum (kta). Since then, we have expanded our references to include plants that produce as much as 2,300 kta of ethylene.
Plant operators are always eager to increase profitability and remain competitive in the marketplace. We have developed an innovative solution to maximize the yield of high-value components such as propylene and butadiene. It combines mild or extremely mild cracking severity conditions with a toolbox containing various operational and technical measures aimed at optimizing the processing and treatment of recycle streams. Suited to both new and revamp projects, this proprietary, state-of-the-art technology provides customers with the benefit of optimized plant economics.