Water treatment plant for a US-Ethylene cracker plant
This innovative water treatment system has been installed in one of the largest petrol and petrochemical complexes in the USA, a huge ethylene cracker handling up to 1.5 million t/y Ethylene capacity.
The challenge
The petrochemical industry in the USA receives a considerable surplus of feedstock from shale gas, and significant investments are currently being made to take advantage of this overabundance and to increase the supply of ethylene-based chemicals and polymers. All the US-based Major chemical producers are looking to profit from their own natural gas supply surplus to produce added-value chemicals and polymer products. Shale gas restores the profitability of the petrochemical industry in the USA with competitive prices and sustainable feedstock.
The project
Cannon Artes has been chosen as the supplier for the entire demineralization plant supporting the ethylene cracker plant.
The plant has an overall capacity of 4,500 m3/day of demineralized water.
The system is entirely relying on trend-setting membrane technologies. Set up in three trains, it features an Ultrafiltration (UF) section, a first-pass Reverse Osmosis (RO), a second-pass Reverse Osmosis, and Electro-deionization (EDI).
The supplied solution
The plant is composed of three different stages. UF is effective in removing solid particles down to 0.01 micron levels, RO is substantially removing the bulk of dissolved salts and EDI, getting rid of even the traces of salts so that product water can be defined as “ultrapure” and can easily meet the most stringent specifications of high-pressure steam boilers.
A condensate polishing unit completes the treatment on two Granular Activated Carbons filters able to perform adsorption of residual traces of organic compounds from a 50 m3/h water stream.