For the first time, the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) is funding a project to test climate-friendly alternatives to the use of fossil fuels in the chemical industry. With the help of funding totaling around 14.8 million euros, construction of the world's first demonstration plant for electrically heated steam cracker furnaces has now begun in Ludwigshafen (Rhineland-Palatinate).
Together with two partners, the chemical company BASF SE wants to use the technology developed to eliminate one of the biggestCO2 emitters. This is part of the "Decarbonization in Industry" funding programme. The program is being supervised by the Competence Center for Climate Protection in Energy-Intensive Industries (KEI) based in Cottbus (Brandenburg), which initiated this research project.
In the funded "eFurnace" project, the chemical company will be testing various heating concepts for electrified cracking furnaces in a steam cracker over the next four years. The official go-ahead for the construction of the large-scale demonstration plant was given on September 1, 2022 at the BASF site in Ludwigshafen. By using electricity from renewable energies instead of fossil natural gas to heat the furnaces, the new technology has the potential to reduceCO2 emissions from one of the most energy-intensive processes in chemical production by at least 90 percent compared to the conventional method. Commissioning of the demonstration plant integrated into an existing steam cracker is planned for 2023. Steam cracking - the steam splitting of hydrocarbons - produces important building blocks for the chemical industry in huge production plants. www.klimaschutz-industrie.de
