Concept: To heat the steam cracker furnaces, the chemical giant BASF has used electricity from renewable sources rather than natural gas. When compared to the methods that are currently in use, the brand-new technology has the potential to cut the CO2 emissions from one of the manufacturing processes in the chemical industry that uses the most energy by at least 90%. The world's first demonstration plant for large-scale electrically heated steam cracker furnaces has begun construction in Germany by British chemical company Linde, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), and BASF.

Nature of the Breakdown: Poland Renewable Energy Policy into olefins and aromatics, steam crackers are essential to the synthesis of fundamental chemicals and require a significant amount of energy. The demonstration plant uses electricity as a heat source to continuously produce olefin. The reaction takes place in furnaces at 850 degrees Celsius. It is made to test two different ideas for heating simultaneously—direct heating and indirect heating. Indirect heating employs radiative heat from heating elements positioned around the process tubes, whereas direct heating applies an electric current directly to the reactor's process tubes. By putting these two ideas through testing, you can adapt to a variety of customer and site needs. Carbon emissions can be reduced by heating steam cracker furnaces with electricity instead of natural gas or other fossil fuels.

Outlook: CO2 emissions result from the chemical processes' reliance on heat energy generated by burning natural gas or fossil fuels. At BASF's Verbund facility in Ludwigshafen, Germany, the company is developing a demonstration plant that could be fully integrated into one of the existing steam crackers. While processing approximately 4,000 kg (4 t) of hydrocarbon per hour, the demonstration facility could reduce these emissions by making use of 6MW of renewable energy. The project is being funded by investments from BASF and SABIC, and the demonstration plant would be run by BASF. The project's partner in engineering, procurement, and construction is Linde, which will later commercialize the developed technologies. The project received $14.8 million from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action as part of its funding program for "Decarbonization in Industry." The initiative helps Germany's energy-intensive industry reach its carbon neutrality goal. In 2023, BASF intends to begin operation of the demonstration plant.