Integration of naphtha to ethane and propane fractionation section with ethane steam cracker

Abstract

A process of producing ethylene and propylene from naphtha, the process comprising: producing light paraffins—ethane, hydrogen/methane/residual ethane and propane rich streams—in a dividing wall fractionation column from a stream of hydrogen, methane, propane, and residual C4+ produced in the reactor section of a naphtha-to-ethane-and-propane processing unit by reacting naphtha with hydrogen, a naphtha reactor effluent stream produced by a naphtha reactor of the naphtha-to-ethane-and-propane processing unit is cooled to produce a feed stream. The feed stream is passed to a dividing wall fractionation column. An ethane stream from the dividing wall fractionation column is passed to an ethane steam cracker to produce a cracking heater effluent stream. The cracking heater effluent stream is passed to a coldbox of the ethane steam cracker after multiple steps such as quenching, compression, cooling, caustic scrubbing, drying. One or more fluids for cooling the naphtha (NEP) reactor effluent stream and for cooling the coldbox of the ethane steam cracker are provided by a common refrigeration system.