Abstract: A new 1.0Mt/a ethylene plant adopts SINOPEC′s proprietary ethylene technology(CBL+LECT),with naphtha serving as the base operating conditions.It is planned to purchase 130kt/a of high-quality ethane as cracking feedstock. Without changing the annual ethylene production capacity of 1.0Mt/a, the plant intends to integrate an ethane operating conditions. Compared with the base case, the total ethylene plant feedstock in the ethane case decreases by 208.6kt/a, and the ethylene yield increases by 2.57 percentage points.This study estimates the changes in equipment load and potential bottlenecks in the compression and separation unit under the ethane operating conditions. It also explores the directions for adjustments in ethane storage and preheating. According to calculations, under ethane-based operation, the loadratio/temperatureratio difference for the CFT and the intermediate reboiler in the ethylene tower increases by 26% and 23% respectively; the recycled ethane volume rises by 25%.It is necessary to carry out the design of increasing the corresponding equipment load capacity to realize the processing of purchased ethane feedstock.

Key words: ethylene plant, ethane, operating condition, feedstock, equipment load