Beyond Ethane: CB&I's Technologies for On-Purpose Production of Propylene and C4s

On-purpose technologies can bring added value to shale gas and shale oil based projects by providing sustainable flexibility to convert feeds to target products or to transform by-products into higher value products. These technologies will also help to offset the reduction in valuable byproduct production rates resulting from the increased use of ethane feed in both existing and new steam crackers around the world. The major on-purpose technologies in commercial application include olefin metathesis, C₃ and C₄ dehydrogenation and methanol to olefins. In addition, there are a number of low-cost conversion technologies that have been integrated with the major on-purpose processes to increase production and/or upgrade product values. Commercial examples will be reviewed to illustrate various feed and product flexibility strategies.