Ethylene Prices Research Articles

Assessment of electrified ethylene production via biomass gasification and electrochemical CO reduction

The chemical industry needs new methods for sourcing carbon-containing feedstocks from renewable sources to decrease CO2 emissions and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Ethylene, a crucial base chemical used for making polymers and ethylene oxide, is primarily produced through steam cracking of fossil feedstocks. However, an evolving technology is the electrochemical reduction of CO2 or CO to produce ethylene. The study assesses the environmental, economic and energetic performance of a new biomass-based process that produces ethylene based on the electrochemical reduction of CO. The results are based on mass and energy balances from process simulation. The CO is produced by either gasification of biomass or combustion of biomass with CO2 capture and CO2 electrolysis. Besides ethylene, the process produces acetic acid, ethanol, oxygen and hydrogen as by-products which are purified and sold. The annual output varies between 36 and 68 kt ethylene with a biomass input of 157 kt. The levelized cost of ethylene ranges from 3,920 to 7,163 €/t with the gasification routes being the most cost-effective. The ethylene price is heavily dependent on electricity price, current density, operating voltage, and by-product prices. The carbon efficiency of the gasification-based routes is lower (64%) than the combustion-based routes (85%–86%). However, the energy efficiency is higher for the gasification-based routes (42%) compared to the combustion-based routes (28%). Conversion of ethanol to ethylene increases the ethylene yield with minimal impacts on the ethylene price. In terms of CO2 emissions, the gasification-based routes show lower emissions. Scenarios using wind power show a significant emission reduction potential compared to fossil products.

Experimental data supported techno-economic assessment of the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane through chemical looping with oxygen uncoupling

Ethylene is an essential building block in the petrochemical industry and it is almost exclusively produced via ethane steam cracking, a well-established albeit highly energy and carbon dioxide intensive process. The oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane is a promising alternative to steam cracking reactions due to its exothermic nature, which decreases the overall energy requirements and carbon footprint. The need of a capital intensive air separation unit for producing oxygen limits its potential for industrial application. The current study investigates an alternative route, i.e. the production of oxygen via chemical looping, where oxygen is released in-situ by suitable oxygen carriers. The chemical looping oxidative dehydrogenation, supported by original experimental data, and the steam cracking processes are simulated with ASPEN Plus®. A comprehensive analysis of the energy requirements and an economic assessment are carried out for both processes. Compared with state-of-the-art ethane steam cracking, the proposed process provides ~28% energy savings per tonnes of ethylene produced and ~21% reduction in the resulting ethylene price. Sensitivity analysis show that the economy of the chemical looping oxidative dehydrogenation process is strongly sensitive to the feedstock price.

Impact of US Shale Gas on the Vertical and Horizontal Dynamics of Ethylene Price

The rise of shale resources in the United States is changing the petrochemical industries. Ethylene, the first building block of petrochemical products, is becoming the first target to be hit by the shale boom, and its shifting price dynamics needs to be explored. This study analyzes the transition of ethylene prices from crude oil to natural gas (vertical price dynamics) and investigates widening gaps among regional ethylene prices (horizontal price dynamics). To do this, we detect structural changes in cointegrating relationships and derive time-varying cointegration equations. In addition, for the long- and short-run dynamics, this study established and estimated an error correction model (ECM), with controlling, time-varying cointegrations. This study develops econometric studies by applying time-varying cointegration to nonenergy uses of fossil fuels. Thereby, our results discover that the feedstock structure of US ethylene is moving from crude oil to natural gas and that the comovement of US and Japanese prices is getting intensified.

Europe fines firms for colluding on ethylene prices

The European Commission (EC) has fined Clariant, Celanese, and Orbia a total of $293 million for fixing the price they paid for ethylene in Belgium, France, Germany, and the Netherlands between Dec...

Techno-economic analysis of oxidative coupling of methane: Current state of the art and future perspectives

The oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) process, which uses natural gas as a raw material for ethylene production and has been widely investigated since the 80’s, is an alternative to conventional processes based on naphtha cracking. However, many authors have shown that its viability is hampered by the low yields that can currently be achieved during the OCM reaction. In this work, the performance of the OCM reactor and its impact on the overall OCM plant have been quantified from a techno-economic point of view. It has been proven that a very high ethylene price (above 1500 €/ton C2H4) is obtained with the current OCM technology, which corresponds to a C2 reactor yield of around 15%. The sensitivity analysis of the OCM process has revealed that the best reactor performance does not necessarily imply the lowest ethylene price, but there are instead other factors affecting it. With the simulation of the overall plant it has also been demonstrated that a C2 reactor yield of at least 25–30% is the target to obtain an ethylene cost lower than 1000 €/ton C2H4. Finally, it has been shown that, based on the forecast of costs for natural gas and naphtha, the gap between the ethylene price obtained with conventional technologies and the one obtained with the current OCM state of the art is expected to progressively become smaller, forecasting OCM to be competitive with traditional technologies in around 20 years.

Pengaruh Harga Minyak Bumi, Harga Bahan Baku Plastik Terhadap Return On Asset Pada Perusahaan Penghasil Bahan Baku Plastik

This study focuses on the effect of petroleum prices, the price of plastic raw materials on return on assets in companies producing plastic raw materials in Indonesia. This study aims to determine the high growth return on assets, making the companies that produce plastic raw materials will get the maximum benefit from the use or turnover of assets owned. If directly related to the relationship between the growth of petroleum prices, the growth of the plastic industry and growth return on assets has a relationship, namely plastic raw materials derived from petroleum, where the price of plastic raw materials becomes very sensitive to fluctuations in oil price movements which will affect the company's profitability. The Independent Variables used are Petroleum Prices, Naphtha Prices, Ethylene Prices, Polyethylene Prices, Ethylene Glycol Prices, Polyvinyl Chloride Prices, Propylene Prices and Polyproylene Prices. The analytical method used is multiple linear regression using the help of SPSS 20 software. The results of this study can be concluded that Ethylene Prices and Ethylene Glycol Prices have an influence on return on assets.

Economic Evaluation of Mixed C4’sUpgrading Processes. (Raslanuf Ethylene Plant as a Case Study)

Reducing the operating cost (opex) is a method implemented by Ethylene producers to keep ethylene prices from expensive feedstock more competitive in comparison with cheaper feed stocks like ethane. Alternatively economics maybe improved by upgrading the mixed C4 stream which is produced from ethylene plant and contains valuable unsaturated C4s such as butadiene, isobutylene, butene-1, and butene-2. There are different processing options available to recover these components or turn them into final products. These processing options or routes are combination of different chemical processes such as Total hydrogenation, Butadiene extraction, MTBE production form butylenes, Butane-1 recovery and other processes. Several upgrading options have been proposed and evaluated for Raslanuf ethylene plant c4 feed of about 130000 tonne/y. Internal rate of return IRR , payback time or period PBP, and the net present value NPV, all have been estimated for options which can be implemented at the site; butadiene extraction and metathesis. Because base case results were not definitive, sensitivity analysis was performed. The parameters investigated are sales prices; feed cost, construction time and total investment. .The results suggest butadiene extraction is the best processing option for processing Raslanuf mixed C4 stream.

Design, simulation and techno-economic analysis of two processes for the conversion of shale gas to ethylene

Shale gas is being considered as feedstock for the production of major petrochemicals. One such chemical is ethylene. Although the typical production for ethylene is carried out via thermal cracking, alternative processes have been gaining importance recently. Among such alternatives are the Oxidative Coupling of Methane (OCM) and the Methanol to Olefins (MTO) processes. The first one is a direct conversion process while the second one involves several stages. The aim of this work is to carry out an economic, energy and environmental assessment for these two processes. The results show that the MTO process is more profitable under the economic and technical scenario considered here. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to show the shale gas and ethylene prices under which the OCM process would be economically attractive. An analysis on catalyst improvement needed for the OCM process to be profitable is also reported.

Price dynamics of crude oil and the regional ethylene markets

This paper is the first attempt to investigate: (i) is the crude oil (WTI) price significantly related to the regional ethylene prices in the Naphtha intensive ethylene markets of the Far East, North West Europe, and the Mediterranean? (ii) What drives the regional ethylene prices? The paper is motivated by the recent and growing debate on the lead-lag relationship between crude oil and ethylene prices. Our findings, based on the long-run structural modelling approach of Pesaran and Shin, and subject to the limitations of the study, tend to suggest: (i) crude oil (WTI) price is cointegrated with the regional ethylene prices (ii) our within-sample error-correction model results tend to indicate that although the ethylene prices in North West Europe and the Mediterranean were weakly endogenous, the Far East ethylene price was weakly exogenous both in the short and long term. These results are consistent, during most of the period under review (2000.1–2006.4) with the surge in demand for ethylene throughout the Far East, particularly in China and South Korea. However, during the post-sample forecast period as evidenced in our variance decompositions analysis, the emergence of WTI as a leading player as well, is consistent with the recent surge in WTI price (fuelled mainly, among others, by the strong hedging activities in the WTI futures/options and refining tightness) reflecting the growing importance of input cost in determining the dynamic interactions of input and product prices.

Catalyst in Basic Oleochemicals

Currently Indonesia is the world largest palm oil producer with production volume reaching 16 million tones per annum. The high crude oil and ethylene prices in the last 3 – 4 years contribute to the healthy demand growth for basic oleochemicals: fatty acids and fatty alcohols. Oleochemicals are starting to replace crude oil derived products in various applications. As widely practiced in petrochemical industry, catalyst plays a very important role in the production of basic oleochemicals. Catalytic reactions are abound in the production of oleochemicals: Nickel based catalysts are used in the hydrogenation of unsaturated fatty acids; sodium methylate catalyst in the transesterification of triglycerides; sulfonic based polystyrene resin catalyst in esterification of fatty acids; and copper chromite/copper zinc catalyst in the high pressure hydrogenation of methyl esters or fatty acids to produce fatty alcohols. To maintain long catalyst life, it is crucial to ensure the absence of catalyst poisons and inhibitors in the feed. The preparation methods of nickel and copper chromite catalysts are as follows: precipitation, filtration, drying, and calcinations. Sodium methylate is derived from direct reaction of sodium metal and methanol under inert gas. The sulfonic based polystyrene resin is derived from sulfonation of polystyrene crosslinked with di-vinyl-benzene. © 2007 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

Take-or-pay contract valuation under price and private uncertainty

A take-or-pay contract for ethylene is valued for a chemical manufacturing facility. The private uncertainty of production, storage, and consumption requirements associated with the complex are coupled to the price uncertainty of the ethylene spot market. A Monte Carlo simulation is employed to model the private uncertainty and the dynamics of the stochastic ethylene prices is expressed through a binomial lattice. The take-or-pay contract is evaluated in terms of the maximum price payable for a marginal increase in the contract quantity, and the effect of the system parameters of storage capacity, liquefaction rate, and evaporation rate on the contract valuation is examined. The advantages and limitations of the model are also discussed.

Costs creating ethylene feedstock problems

By the end of the year, cash cost economics will be setting ethylene prices. And this phenomenon will continue at least through 1993. This means U.S. ethylene producers will face even greater pressure to minimize production costs. It also means that they will have to be more selective in choosing their feedstock. That's the message that Thomas H. McGreevey brought to the recent meeting of the Chemical Management & Resources Association (CMRA) meeting in Philadelphia. McGreevey, director of CPI Consulting Associates, White Plains, N.Y., unloaded a few surprises at CMRA's review and forecast meeting. For instance, light naphtha and gas oil will be more competitive than ethane as an ethylene feedstock, says McGreevey. In fact, he expects ethane to be the least competitive of all possible feedstocks. For ethylene producers, oscillating feedstock economics is nothing new. They have been living with it for decades. Until the 1960s, the U.S. olefins industry was built on an ...

Plant shutdowns help firm ethylene prices

The 2 cent-per-lb drop in the price of ethylene widely forecast for July apparently will not take place. Instead, the price likely will remain firm because of production declines this month—and possibly throughout the third quarter—resulting from plant shutdowns for planned maintenance and from accidents. Last month, forecasts of lower ethylene prices—to 30 cents a lb from the June price of about 32 cents—were heard as demand for several derivatives (especially polymers) appeared to weaken. For example, an expected boost in exports of derivatives, notably to China, has failed to materialize. In fact, since late last year, exports to China have declined. And in the U.S., demand for ethylene derivatives has been growing more slowly than a year ago, while production and inventories, at least during the first quarter of this year, have remained high. During July, about 8% of U.S. nameplate ethylene capacity will be shut down for at least part of the month. ...

Tightening Supplies Push Up Ethylene Price

This month control of ethylene marketing has shifted back to producers. Once again producers are setting prices after several years of buyers dictating what they will pay for the monomer. The chang...

Surfactant raw material outlook for the eighties

AbstractOver the next decade, the surfactant industry should be able to secure an adequate supply of the raw materials necessary to provide its need for surfactant intermediates. Since the U.S. will continue to rely on foreign imports for marginal crude supplies, periodic disruptions in raw material supply are likely to occur. World crude prices are expected to rise more rapidly than the general U.S. inflation rate and surfactant feedstocks are expected to track world crude prices as a whole. Over the next few years, ethylene prices should increase faster than other surfactant feedstocks. This should occur as a result of natural gas price decontrol and improved ethylene profit margins. Otherwise, in the long term, the major driving force for all three synthetic feedstocks should be the price of world crude. Of course, short term perturbations, e.g., plant shutdowns and over‐supply situations, may cause one feedstock or the other to increase at somewhat higher or somewhat lower rates for short periods of time. Natural oils may represent an interesting alternative to crude‐oil‐based alcohols. Longer term, average prices for natural oils should increase at lower rates than world crude oil. However, natural oil prices have historically been much more cyclic than crude prices and “natural” alcohol producers run the risk of being noncompetitive during tight supply/demand periods.

Oil pinch arrives for Japanese petrochemicals

Olefins plants in Japan were buying naphtha feedstock for about $27 a kiloliter near the end of last year. current figure is about $40. Ethylene prices have made a corresponding jump—from 6 cents a pound in late autumn to about 8.5 cents at present. For Japanese petrochemicals producers, the oil pinch has arrived. Compounded of restricted supplies and the doubling at year's end of posted prices for Persian Gulf crude, it promises to push prices still higher. Spot purchases of imported naphtha, industry sources tell C&EN in Tokyo, already are being made at close to $67 a kiloliter. (Japan regularly imports about 10% as much naphtha as is produced in domestic refineries.) It's a good time to be working in a company's planning department, comments one executive in a leading Japanese chemical firm. The price upheaval that's coming is the perfect chance to make needed changes in product mix and move the chemical companies ...

Ethylene price to climb, supply tighten

Ethylene price to climb, supply tighten