Methane to ethylene, the holy grail

摘要

Ethylene, the main building block of plastics, is currently produced via a steam cracking process that uses naphtha. Methane is an abundant hydrocarbon that can be used as an alternative raw material for the production of ethylene, especially since large quantities of shale-gas have been discovered. This study uses Douglas' hierarchical design methodology to perform a feasibility study for an industrial production plant producing 100 ktpa ethylene at 99.9% purity from methane. The aim of this study is to find the reaction pathway with the most potential, identifying the major bottlenecks for industrial application and to give specific recommendations for future research.