Division BAT 49: In order to recover ethylene and energy and to reduce emissions of organic compounds to air from the EO plant, BAT is to use both of the techniques given below.
United Kingdom
| Technique | Description | Applicability | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Techniques to recover organic material for reuse or recycling | |||
| a. | Use of pressure swing adsorption or membrane separation to recover ethylene from the inerts purge | With the pressure swing adsorption technique, the target gas (in this case ethylene) molecules are adsorbed on a solid (e.g. molecular sieve) at high pressure, and subsequently desorbed in more concentrated form at lower pressure for reuse or recycling. For membrane separation, see Section 12.1 | Applicability may be restricted when the energy demand is excessive due to a low ethylene mass flow |
| Energy recovery techniques | |||
| b. | Send the inerts purge stream to a combustion unit | See BAT 9 | Generally applicable |