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3 - Ethylene Production from Diverse Feedstocks and Energy Sources

Environmental Impact Assessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2022

Bala Subramaniam
Bala Subramaniam
Affiliation:
University of Kansas
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Summary

Ethylene ranks among the top-20 chemicals, with nearly 200 million metric tons made globally in 2020. Its production requires much energy that is currently derived from fossil fuels. This chapter discusses environmental impacts for ethylene production from petroleum, natural gas and biomass sources, predicted using commercial software. Most of the predicted environmental impacts are within the same order of magnitude. For all feedstocks, the main sources of adverse environmental impacts are greenhouse gas emissions, acidification and air pollution stemming from the burning of fossil-based fuel; and for agricultural operations, production of fertilizers and pesticides needed for cultivation (in the case of ethanol), ocean-based transportation of crude oil and the chemical processing steps (for all feedstocks). An assessment of the environmental impacts of different fossil energy sources (coal, natural gas and fuel oil) reveals almost similar carbon footprints to produce a given quantity of energy. The predicted emissions agree well with the actual emissions data reported by coal-based and natural gas-based power plants to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA).

Keywords

ethylenecrude oilnatural gascoalethanollife cycle assessment
Type
Chapter
Information
Green Catalysis and Reaction Engineering
An Integrated Approach with Industrial Case Studies
 , pp. 50 - 66
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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