Auto-thermal Cracking - Introduction

Autothermal Cracking is a proprietary technology for the manufacture of ethylene and propylene which has been developed by INEOS Technologies and offers lower investment cost (as much as 40% less) with less energy consumption and lower emissions than steam cracking.

Through the use of a very fast (millisecond) oxidative thermal cracking catalyst large steam cracking furnaces are replaced by a number of small catalyst-charged reactors.  The option of operation at elevated pressure removes the need for cracked gas compression, and large steam generation systems are not required as there is no need for steam feed to the autothermal cracking process.

The process has been proven at 5 tpd scale at Grangemouth with wide range of real feeds.

A full commercial process design has been developed, including a detailed autothermal reactor design. Please contact us for more information.