Assessment of energy saving potential of an industrial ethylene cracking furnace using advanced exergy analysis

Abstract

Steam cracking furnace is a high energy-consuming equipment in the ethylene plant. Reducing the exergy destruction and losses associated with the steam cracking furnace can increase the thermodynamic efficiency of the system and thereby reducing energy penalties. This paper aims to quantitatively evaluate thermodynamic performance of an industrial steam cracking furnace through conventional and advanced exergy analysis in order to assess its energy saving potential. A steady state simulation of an industrial steam cracking furnace with a total feed capacity of 12t/h was carried out. The simulation was validated by comparing the model prediction results with the industrial data. The conventional exergy analysis shows that the overall exergy efficiency of the steam cracking furnace is found to be 43.43% and the combustion process in the radiation section exhibits the largest exergy destruction followed by the tube reactors in the radiation section. The advanced exergy analysis shows that the combustion process has the highest unavoidable exergy destruction. Moreover, the tube reactors in the radiation section has the highest avoidable exergy Highlights  Steady state simulation of steam cracking furnace and model validation  Simulation considering interactions among Convection and Radiation sections, and Quench system  Conventional and advanced exergy analysis of a steam cracking furnace  Combustion process in radiation section exhibits highest exergy destruction followed by tube reactors

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