Thermal cracking of hydrocarbons is still the main process used to produce ethylene and propylene, the two major starting blocks in the petrochemicals value chain. Due to the large production scales, small improvements in yield and efficiency can result in significant additional value.
The steam cracking furnace is at the heart of maximizing ethylene production process profitability. Accurate information on key process indicators such as conversion, product yields, tube metal temperatures, and coil coking state and rates is essential for optimal operation. However measuring these quantities reliably in real time is often either impossible or very difficult. A further challenge is to operate the furnaces at optimal operating conditions to maximize profitability in the face of changing feedstock availability and composition over time, while taking into account plant constraints.
Digitalization and advances in modelling technology have brought about major new opportunities for online Digital Applications. These combine high-fidelity plant models and real-time plant data to provide operations with high-quality monitoring, soft-sensing, real-time optimization and ‘what-if’ operations decision support capabilities.
This webinar
This webinar describes current Digital Applications technology that has been applied on several large-scale Middle Eastern ethylene plants to
- monitor coke build-up in furnace coils
- provide real-time ethylene and propylene yield information
- optimize furnace section performance using short-cycle optimization.
Built on PSE's gPROMS advanced process modelling capabilities and the gPROMS Digital Applications Platform, the applications represent a new generation of tools available to plant operations. The webinar will include experience with the deployment of these applications on full-scale industrial plants.
Presenter(s)
Sreekumar Maroor is a Principal Consultant Engineer at Process Systems Enterprise (PSE). He is trained as a chemical engineer and has more than 17 years of industrial experience. His work at PSE over the last 9 years has included the application of advanced process modelling and optimization using gPROMS modelling platform to chemical processes such as steam cracking, EDC cracking, acetylene hydrogenation etc. He is also the product manager for PSE’s gML:Olefins libraries.
Lorena Souza is a Consultant Engineer in gPROMS Operational Excellence Solutions at Process Systems Enterprise (PSE). She has been responsible for installation and deployment of digital application projects for the past 2 years. Her responsibilities include acquisition and processing of plant data, configuration of digital application and design and implementation of user interface. Lorena is a Chemical Engineer with a PhD from Imperial College London, MSc and Bachelor from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Her background is in Thermophysical property data, with a focus on gas separation processes and technologies, and carbon capture and storage technologies.
