Energy and materials flows in the production of olefins and their derivatives

Technical Report · Fri Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1980

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/7013430· OSTI ID:7013430

Gaines, L. L.; Shen, S. Y.

Production of olefins and their derivatives uses almost 3.5% of the oil and gas consumed annually in the United States. It is estimated that their production requires an input energy of 2 Q, which is 50% of the energy used in the production of all petrochemicals. Substantial amounts of this energy could be recovered through recycling. For example, recycling of a single plastic product, polyester soft drink bottles, could have recovered about 0.014 Q in 1979. (About 1.4 Q is used to produce plastic derivatives of olefins). Petrochemical processes use fuels as feedstocks, as well as for process energy, and a portion of this energy is not foregone and can be recovered through combustion of the products. The energy foregone in the production of ethylene is estimated to be 7800 Btu/lb. The energy foregone in plastics production ranges from 12,100 Btu/lb for the new linear low-density polyethylene to 77,200 Btu/lb for nylon 66, which is about 60% of the total energy input for that product. Further investigation of the following areas could yield both material and energy savings in the olefins industry: (1) recycling of petrochemical products to recover energy in addition to that recoverable through combustion, (2) impact of feedstock substitution on utilization of available national resources, and (3) effective use of the heat embodied in process steam. This steam accounts for a major fraction of the industry's energy input.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 7013430
• Report Number(s): ANL/CNSV-9
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320300* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Industrial & Agricultural Processes
ALKENES
BUTADIENE
CHEMICAL PLANTS
CONSUMPTION RATES
DATA
DATA COMPILATION
DEMAND
DIENES
ELASTOMERS
ENERGY
ENERGY ANALYSIS
ENERGY DEMAND
ENERGY RECOVERY
ENERGY SOURCES
ESTERS
ETHYLENE
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GASES
HEAT
HEAT RECOVERY
HYDROCARBONS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INFORMATION
MATERIAL BALANCE
MATERIAL SUBSTITUTION
NATURAL GAS
NUMERICAL DATA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC POLYMERS
PETROCHEMICAL PLANTS
PETROCHEMICALS
PETROLEUM
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
PLASTICS
POLYENES
POLYESTERS
POLYMERS
PROCESS HEAT
PRODUCTION
PROPYLENE
RECOVERY
RECYCLING
RUBBERS