ABSTRACT
The plant contractors are the basic designers of olefin plant, but the customers – the chemical companies – must be in a position to evaluate their proposals, monitor their work and feed into it the lessons of their own experience and requirements. The design and development of naphtha-based ethylene plant is thus a matter for the plant contractors, but it depends a great deal on a feedback of information from the chemical companies concerned. In the USA the cracker stock for the growing ethylene production was ethane, and this continues to be so because of its availability in refinery off-gases and as a component of natural gas. While the American companies acquired their essential foothold from their experience in refining technology, Linde based their entry on their skills in refrigeration derived from handling liquid air. The most significant factors in the success of the American plant contractors are indeed concerned with management.
