Dow & Shell team up to develop e-cracking technology

Dow and Shell, two giants of the oil and gas company, are teaming up for low-carbon technology to improve sustainability in the chemicals industry, the companies have announced.

The two have entered into a joint development agreement to accelerate technology to electrify ethylene steam crackers. 

Using electricity instead of fossil fuel combustion to heat their cracker furnaces could yield a very significant reduction in carbon emissions from base chemical production.

Steam crackers are currently the industry’s largest source of CO2, annually producing an estimated 300 million tonnes in emissions.

Steam cracking of hydrocarbons such as naphtha or other petrochemical materials remains a key process to produce light olefins such as ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, toluene and xylene. These mixtures make up the primary building blocks of materials such as plastic and various polymers and chemicals.

The world is ever-shifting towards a greener and more sustainable future, and this route could be one that revolutionises the chemicals industry to become less reliant on carbon as a whole.

The real challenge is developing materials that are technologically and economically viable when compared to existing measures.

The collaboration between the two companies is already underway. Innovation project teams in Amsterdam and Terneuzen in the Netherlands and Texas, respectively, are focused on designing and scaling ‘e-cracker’ technologies – first on a micro-scale in laboratories, before being moved up to a commercial scale.

Keith Cleason, VP of Dow Olefins, Aromatics and Alternatives, said: “Continuously improving the sustainability of our operations is an inherent part of how we operate at Dow.”

Thomas Casparie, Executive VP of Shell’s global chemicals business, added: “This new work with Dow has the potential to contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions from the manufacture of chemicals and to Shell’s ambition of becoming a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050 or sooner.”

Several consortia have been investigating how materials such as naphtha or gas steam crackers could be operated using renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels.

In 2019, a coalition of six petrochemical companies in Flanders, North Rhine-Westphalia and the Netherlands came together to experiment with such scenarios, in a consortium named ‘The Cracker of the Future.’

The companies, BASF, Borealis, BP, LyondellBasell, SABIC and Total, have agreed to invest in R&D and knowledge sharing and are currently exploring and screening technical options.

They are experimenting with base chemicals such as ethylene, propylene butadiene and BTX, and are using them to make carbon-neutral plastics.

These plastics are then used in lightweight components for vehicles, improving passenger safety and comfort, as well as in food packaging.

If a solution is identified, the parties will determine whether to pursue joint development of projects that could include a demonstrator for proof of concept in the case of base chemicals.

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