Co-Production of Olefins, Fuels, and Electricity from Conventional Pipeline Gas and Shale Gas with Near-Zero CO2 Emissions. Part II: Economic Performance.

In this paper, techno-economic analyses of a polygeneration system for the production of olefins, transportation fuels and electricity are performed, considering various process options. Derivative-free optimization algorithms were coupled with Aspen Plus simulation models to determine the optimum product portfolio as a function of a wide variety of market prices. The optimization results show that the proposed plant is capable of producing olefins with the same production costs as traditional petrochemical routes while having effectively zero process CO2 emissions (including the utilities). This provides an economic and more sustainable alternative to traditional naphtha cracking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]