Ismaël Amghizar¹_, Tamás Buzogány² , Lin Chen¹, David Brown¹, Kevin Van Geem² , Guy B. Marin²

AVGI BV, Ghent, Belgium, (1) Laboratory for Chemical Technology (LCT), Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium (2)

Keywords: Steam cracking, mathematical modelling, micro-kinetic modelling

The crude-to-olefins technology can provide an opportunity for integrating operational refineries with chemicals. Fundamental understanding of the underlying steam cracking kinetics and development of  compact and comprehensive mathematical models is crucial aspect. Detailed kinetic models for of the thermal degradation of heavy species, typically found in crude oils, are usually highly computational demanding and do not offer the required flexibility and accuracy needed to optimize and evaluate the economics.

A microkinetic model, CRACKSIM, allows to handle sufficienly high carbon numbers and , hence, provides a reliable simulation tool for steam cracking of crude-oils using a furnace simulation code COILSIM1D. The model considers all elementary steps reactions. The corresponding kinetic and thermodynamic parameters are derived from high level ab-initio calculations.  Moreover the simulation results have been validated for more than 300 pilot plant experiments covering a wide range of process conditions and feeds with excellent agreement.