Lummus claims recovery package cuts costs, raises coproduct value

ABB Lummus has announced an ethylene recovery package, developed under an alliance with Sinopec, which offers significant reductions in energy consumption, requires fewer equipment items, and leads to an increase in the production of higher-value coproducts. The package uses a combination of refrigeration, hydrogen recovery, hydrogenation, isomerization, and metathesis technologies, including a process that can self-metathesize butenes to produce hexene-1. These technologies provide an unprecedented level of improvement in ethylene plant technology. Lummus and Sinopec will jointly license the technology worldwide for both grassroots and revamp projects.