What’s cooking at Project ONE?
Last week, the C2 splitter was successfully installed at the Project ONE construction site. This was yet another feat, as hoisting and correctly positioning this 60-meter-high, 700-ton “giant of a column” required a great deal of precision and craftsmanship.
This C2 splitter plays an important role in the cracking process and is located at the end of the production chain. The cracking gas formed in the furnaces has already undergone a series of purifications, leaving only a mixture of ethane and ethylene.
A quick explanation of the lingo: ‘C2’ stands for the two carbon atoms that make up both ethane (the raw material) and ethylene (the end product after cracking). The splitter works like a giant ‘cooking pot’ and is designed to separate the ethane from the ethylene.
How does it work?
Through evaporation, whereby the different gases are separated based on their boiling point: ethane, which has a higher boiling point than ethylene, does not evaporate and sinks to the bottom. The ethylene evaporates and rises to the top of the splitter. There it is compressed and the pure ethylene stream (99.9% pure) is sent to the pipeline. The ethane at the bottom is sent back to the beginning of the process and used as raw material so that nothing is lost!
