Decarbonization Approaches for Ethylene Production: Comparative Techno-Economic and Life-Cycle Analysis
Name
D4GC04538F.pdf
Size
6.25 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
5144109c75b483d83d1b8a17152c8ab9
Author(s)
Shin, Woojae
Lin, Bosong
Lai, Haoxiang
Ibrahima, Gasim
Zang, Guiyan
Date Issued
February 18, 2025
Journal
Green Chemistry
Publisher
Royal Society of Chemistry
Citation
Shin, Woojae, Lin, Bosong, Lai, Haoxiang, Ibrahima, Gasim and Zang, Guiyan. 2025. "Decarbonization Approaches for Ethylene Production: Comparative Techno-Economic and Life-Cycle Analysis." Green Chemistry, 27 (14).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Ethylene, a building block of the chemical industry, significantly contributes to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, prompting interest in decarbonization approaches to align with recent carbon neutrality initiatives. This paper presents a comprehensive techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle analysis (LCA) of GHG emissions, comparing conventional ethane-based ethylene plants with three decarbonization approaches. The study was conducted within the context of the U.S. average, with sensitivity analysis to identify key drivers affecting well-to-gate (WTG) GHG emissions and the levelized cost of ethylene (LCOE). The conventional plant exhibited a GHG emission of 869 kgCO2e per tonne-ethylene and a LCOE of $746 per tonne-ethylene. Substituting external natural gas fuels with grid or renewable electricity decreased the emissions to 806 and 717 kgCO2e per tonne-ethylene, respectively. The emissions of the grid-powered or renewable-powered electrically heated cracker that exports co-produced hydrogen to substitute conventional gray hydrogen were 1031 and −163 kgCO2e per tonne-ethylene, respectively. The application of CCS to purge gas showed 703 and 514 kgCO2e per tonne-ethylene emissions, respectively. The electric cracker showed lower emissions than the conventional plant below 380 kgCO2e per MW h electricity upstream, and at 60 kgCO2e per MW h, it achieved carbon neutrality. Regarding LCOE, when using a grid electricity source, no external natural gas, electric cracker, and adding CCS to purge gas showed $743, 833, and 771 per tonne-ethylene, respectively. When these plants adopt renewable electricity, their LCOEs will be $737, 746 and 757 per tonne-ethylene. Below $41.1 per MW h electricity price, the electric cracker had the lowest value among all cases. With hydrogen prices of $0.5–3.0 per kg-H2, the electric cracker's LCOE ranged from −$45(cost)–128(saving) per tonne-ethylene compared to the conventional concept.
MIT Department
MIT Energy Initiative
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1039/D4GC04538F
