Acetylene and Ethylene from Petroleum Hydrocarbons

Abstract

sses for the manufacture of acetylene and ethylene frompetroleum hydrocarbons are generally classified into the Regenerative Furnace Cracking, Inner Heating and Electric Arc Processes. The Inner Heating Process is further separated into the Partial Combustion Process which is chiefly employed when methane is used as feed stock, and the Complete Combustion Process which is used mainly for petroleum hydrocarbons. The report covers the practical problems of the burner structure which is considered to be the heart of the reaction equipment in the combustion process.
A small pilot plant built in the writer's laboratory turned out reasonably high yields of acetylene and ethylene by thermally decomposing propane, naphtha or kerosene at temperatures between 900°C and 1100°C by using the Complete Combustion Inner Heating Steam Diluent Ppocess. A waste heat boiler is used instead of a conventional water jet quencher to regenerate heat from cracked hot gases and when properly conditioned, we were able to recover as much as half the total heat evolved in the cracked gases, without plugging of lines with coke or carbon build-up.
This report also deals with a method to seperate acetylene from cracked gases which contain 7-10 volume percent of acetylene.