Published November 2024
Thermal Crude to Chemicals, or TC2C™ technology is a direct crude oil to chemicals (COTC) route that allows close to full crude conversion to chemicals with near elimination of fuel products. It can be a stand-alone facility or one integrated with an existing refinery. The technology developers and licensors are Lummus Technology LLC (Lummus Technology), Chevron Lummus Global LLC (CLG), and Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco).
TC2C™ technology eliminates crude and vacuum distillation stages and fractionates crude oils using patented advanced separation devices integrated with the steam cracking furnaces. Fractions that are hydrogen-rich comprising predominantly paraffins can be cracked in the furnaces without an upgrade. Aromatic-rich heavier fractions are upgraded via hydroprocessing and then returned to the steam cracker for olefins production. TC2C™ units can process crude oils with API gravity as low as 25, low-value streams such as fluid catalytic cracking light cycle oil (FCC LCO) and slurry oil, and even solvent deasphalting (SDA) pitch. Chemicals yields of 70% (or higher) of the feed crude is possible.
The Shaheen project is the first commercial deployment of TC2C™ technology and is presently in the construction stage at S-OIL Corp. (S-OIL)’s Onsan refinery in South Korea. The project has a 46 kilobarrels per day (KBPD) TC2C™ unit integrated with a world-scale 1,800 kilotons per annum (KTPA) ethylene mixed feed steam cracker (MFSC). It will convert over 65% of feed crude, naphtha, and heavy hydrocarbons from existing S-OIL refinery into chemicals, making this the highest chemical-yielding COTC configuration to be built or in design/construction to date.
The Process Economics Program (PEP) presents a detailed independent evaluation of TC2C™ technology in this report, the first in-depth study to be published on this emerging technology. The report is structured in six chapters that include the following:
- An executive summary of the key findings and major takeaways of the report.
- An industry status report covering COTC developments, COTC projects in the pipeline, demand and capacity trends of the major fuels and base chemicals produced by COTCs, and a brief introduction to the Shaheen project.
- A detailed technology review of patents and publications made .over the last 50 years leading to the development and now commercialization of TC2C™ technology. We discuss patents and publications by various technology developers first, followed by those made by the developers of TC2C™ technology. We summarize earlier PEP works in the area of direct crude conversion to chemicals. We also present overviews of CLG’s liquid circulation and fixed bed hydrocracking/hydrotreating technology, and Lummus Technology’s liquid steam cracker technology.
- PEP’s evaluation of a 1,474. KTPA ethylene capacity TC2C™ unit with integrated hydroprocessing: The evaluation is based on public domain information released by the licensors through publications and patents. The evaluation includes detailed process flow diagrams, heat and material balances, and a sized equipment list for the TC2C™ integrated crude separation (integrated separation device [ISD]) and MFSC sections. The integrated hydroprocessing section (integrated hydroprocessing unit [IHU]) and ancillary facilities such as hydrogen and sulfur plants are evaluated based on earlier PEP reports or reviews covering these technologies. These are then used to develop the subsection and overall plant inside battery limits (ISBL), outside battery limits (OSBL), and total fixed capital (TFC) cost estimates. Variable and production costs and return on capital investment for polymer grade (PG) ethylene production are presented for the first quarter of 2024 in the US Gulf Coast (USGC) and mainland China locations.
- PEP’s evaluation of the Shaheen project: PEP’s design is based on the plant configuration and capacity details shared by the developers and S-OIL. PEP has added many details not available in the public domain based on its independent analysis of TC2C™ technology, TC2C™ published generic configuration as evaluated and described in Chapter 5 TC2C™ with integrated hydroprocessing of this report, and PEP’s earlier evaluation of existing S-OIL refinery configuration in PEP Report 303B Refinery Configurations for Maximizing Crude Oil to Chemicals Production (September 2020), etc. The technical evaluation was used to determine the overall Shaheen and subsection material balances and subunit capacities. These are then used to develop the subsection and Shaheen total project ISBL, OSBL, and TFC cost estimates. Variable and production costs and return on capital investment are presented on the basis of total feed hydrocarbons converted into chemicals and fuels. The evaluation is done for the first quarter of 2024 in the South Korea location. Comparisons are made with published capital expenditure (capex) and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) margins for the Shaheen project by S-OIL.