Construction has begun on what is being hailed as the world’s first demonstration plant for large-scale, electrically heated steam cracker furnaces, according to partners BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com), Saudi-based Sabic (Riyadh; www.sabic.com), and Linde (Woking, UK; www.linde.com).

BASF said by using electricity from renewable sources instead of natural gas, the technology could potentially reduce carbon emissions for “one of the most energy-intensive production processes in the chemical industry” by at least 90% compared to technologies commonly used today.

The demonstration plant is to be integrated into a steam cracker at BASF’s headquarters Verbund site, and the plans are for testing two different heating concepts and processing around 4 t of hydrocarbon an hour and consuming 6 MW of renewable energy. Plant start-up is targeted for 2023.

The announcement comes at a time when Germany is scrambling to build natural gas reserves ahead of the winter following spotty deliveries of the fossil fuel from Russia, a situation that began after Moscow ordered its troops to invade Ukraine (see Plasteurope.com of 13.07.2022).

In late August, for example, shipments through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline were once again stopped, this time due to unscheduled “maintenance”, according to operator Gazprom. Government officials in Berlin have questioned the assertion and have warned that the country cannot rely on Russian gas supplies this winter.

BASF said it and Sabic are investing in the electric cracker project, with the former to operate the plant. Linde is to serve as the engineering, procurement, and construction partner and in future will commercialise the developed technologies.

To support the development of the furnace technology, the project has been granted EUR 14.8 mn by the German government as part of its Decarbonisation in Industry funding programme, which supports energy-intensive industries working toward carbon neutrality.

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“BASF’s mission is to achieve climate neutrality, and electrification of the hugely energy-intense steam cracker is a significant milestone in our transformation journey towards net zero,” BASF board chairman Martin Brudermüller said. The company reiterated its ambitious climate goals earlier this year (see Plasteurope.com of 04.04.2022).

The demonstration plant aims to show that continuous olefin production is possible using electricity as a heat source, BASF said. The plant is designed to test the two heating concepts in parallel: direct heating applies electric current to process tubes inside the reactor; indirect heating warms elements placed around the tubes, the company explained, noting that testing these two concepts will make it possible to react flexibly to different customer and site requirements.

Steam crackers are central to basic chemical production and require significant energy to break down or “crack” hydrocarbons into olefins and aromatics. Typically, the reaction occurs in furnaces at about 850C, and such temperatures are reached by burning fossil fuels, BASF added.

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