Hidrokarburo likidoen ekoizpena etilenoaren oligomerizazioaren bitartez

Abstract

Ethylene is the most demanded light olefin within petrochemical industry, with an increasing annual rate of 3,4% on its demand. Due to the availability of natural gas, ethane’s price has shown a drastic decrease worldwide and, therefore, ethane steam cracking (SC) units are beind boosted within refineries, where ethylene is the main product. This situation has led to an excess of ethylene production, while the deficit on propylene production has increased. Therefore, the valorization of ethylene by oligomerization brings the opportunity to obtain high-added valued products, such as, higher olefins, transportation fuels (gasoline, jet fuel and diesel) and/or aromatics; which has increased the interest in both refineries and petrochemical industries. Appart from facing the excess of ethylene production, the ethylene used in the oligomerization process, can be produced from more sustainable sources (i.e. by CO₂ valorization). Hence, oligomerization products, particularly fuels, will be free of sulfur and heteroatoms, and thus, they will show a lower level of toxicity as well as a lower environmental impact in comparison to those derived from fossil fuels. In this work, the main applications of ethylene and the main technologies for ethylene production (conventional and more sustainable ones) are firstly analyzed. Then, ethylene oligomerization technologies which are available in industry are described, where different types of catalysts, operating conditions (temperature and pressure) and the reaction mechanism are explained. Finally, the main facts that relate ethylene oligomerization to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are analyzed.