UPES SPE STUDENT CHAPTER

CHEMICAL WEEK 3.0

CHEM-DE-CASO
CASE STUDY
The Cracker is essentially an industrial plant that is used to break up oil and gas molecules into
simpler, smaller molecules.

Ethane is one of the many by-products collected while the extraction of natural gas. Processing of
Ethane in an Ethane Cracker facility produces Ethylene. Ethylene is a crucial building block in a
number of industries like polymer manufacture, etc.

With the increase of production of crude oil in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, the amount
of Ethane Surplus increased manifold. It was uneconomic to transport this excess to the Gulf Coast
where cracker facility existed then; so the only feasible solution was to burn off the excess (this is
why you see flames burning from wells), however disconcerting it sounds.

Right before the recent Oil Slump there was an abundance of surplus Ethane from the production
of natural gas from Shale. This resulted in workable profit margins in the Ethane Cracker plant
investment.

This however comes with its very own problems. Chief among these is the coke formation in pipes.
The mechanism of which is of various types. One of them is the formation of filamentous coke on
the surface of Nickel and Iron pipes due to the catalytic activities involved in the cracking.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:
Device and identify various methods to maximize the efficiency of the Ethane Cracker Plant with
respect to coke formation. Consider the various mechanisms of coke formation in formulating the
solution.

Guidelines:

1. Maximum of 4 members can participate in a team.

2. An abstract for the solution has to be submitted before 16th January, 2017. The word limit
for the same being 400 words.
3. On the basis of the abstract, teams will enter the Presentation Round.
4. Presentation should be timed for 10 min (8 min for presentation and 2 min for Q&A.)
5. The abstract has to be mailed to publicity.upesspe@gmail.com
6. For further queries contact Ozair Ansari : 9821012233 / Anindya Apoorva : 7248321328