CRACKER – A PC based simulator for

industrial cracking furnaces

Eunjung Joo, Kihong Lee*, Moonyong Lee*, Sunwon Park†
Chem. Eng., KAIST, 373-1 Kusong-dong, Yusong-ku, Taejon, 305-701, KOREA
*School of Chem. Eng. and Tech., Yeungnam University, Kyongsan 712-749, KOREA

Abstract - Ethylene plant is one of the largest plants and the thermal cracking furnace is a key unit in the ethylene
plant. Since ethylene is the basic material in the chemical industry and the market situation of not only the feed and
the product, but also the utility is rapidly changing, the optimal operation of the plant is important. CRACKER, a
PC based software of thermal cracking furnaces is developed based on the rigorous first principles model which can
reflect the effects of the operating variables. CRACKER has a user-friendly graphic interface for the convenient use
and also provides a feed characterization module which can estimate the composition of conventional components
from the commercially available indices. By using CRACKER, the ethylene plant operators can understand the
furnace system well and easily diagnose the current operation and thus can make both the optimal operation
strategy according to the market and the optimal co-cracking strategy according to the characteristics of the
purchased naphtha. Also in the purchase of naphtha, the feed characterization module can help to determine the
better naphtha for the plant based on the price of the naphtha and products.
Keywords : naphtha thermal cracking furnace, PC based simulator, rigorous furnace model, feed characterization,
principal component analysis

reactor and the radiant box simultaneously. But their

INTRODUCTION rigorous model which calculates view factors using the
The heart of an ethylene plant with a huge economic multi-zonal method takes so much time to calculate,
impact is a cracking furnace. The key factor of optimal thus it cannot be used in the furnace model software
design and operation in the furnace is the precise which would be used for the various reactor
prediction of yields and furnace performance. Today’s configurations and operating conditions. Therefore the
tough environment of the ethylene market further furnace model software should have proper rigor to be
stresses the importance of a pertinent furnace model. compromised between the precision and the
The cracking furnace consists of four major sections calculation load or flexibility.
which are closely related with each other: the The feed material naphtha is a complex mixture of
convection section, the cracking reactor, the radiant hydrocarbons. The analysis of naphtha is performed as
box, and the transfer line exchange (TLE) section. For ASTM boiling analysis, PINA (Paraffin/Iso-paraffin
finding an optimal operation strategy, it is crucial to /Naphthene/Aromatics) weight fraction analysis, and
see the influence of operating parameters which can specific gravity analysis. To obtain the feed condition
only be satisfactorily calculated through the rigorous as the weight fractions of conventional components,
modeling with the full integration of every essential mapping from the commercial indices to the
section. However, since the complex relations in heat conventional components is necessary. SPYRO, the
transfer between these sections hamper the only commercially proven furnace model software has
development of a fully integrated rigorous model, a characterization routine that converts these
many researches have been restricted to developing the commercial indices into detailed components through
individual models for one of the furnace sections. But iterative empirical correlations(Wagner et.al., 1997).
the coil inlet temperature is not fixed by the plant CRACKER, an IBM PC compatible software for
operator but determined by the operating conditions of



the radiant box and convection section.
There are spectrums of furnace models according to
the rigor or difficulty. Simple regression-type reactor
models were developed by ethylene plant licensors or
early researchers. But black-box models are not able to


estimate the plant operation to the changes of operating


variables, thus more rigorous models are required. Rao 



et.al.(1988) and Plehiers et.al.(1990) simulated the 

†
Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed.
swpark@mail.kaist.ac.kr Figure 1. Simplified ethane cracking furnace diagram
simulating industrial cracking furnaces is developed. DEVELOPED MODEL DESCRIPTION
In CRACKER, each section of the cracking furnace is
modeled with proper rigor based on first principles and The convection section preheats both the process and
solved simultaneously. Also the feed characterization utility material streams using the remaining heat. The
module is developed to give the feed composition to convective heat transfer predominates over radiative
CRACKER. one. To estimate the outside film heat transfer
coefficient, pure convection for flue gas to a bank of
PROCESS DESCRIPTION bare tubes, radiation from hot gases, and re-radiation
from the walls of the convection section are considered.
In the ethylene plant of a non-oil-producing country, CRACKER divides the convection section into several
naphtha is the most widely-used feed material in unique zones and assumes them as a 1-shell and 2-tube
thermal cracking furnaces. Naphtha is a mixture of pass system. To a zone without phase transition,
complex hydrocarbon materials which ranges mostly CRACKER uses ε-NTU approach(Chapman A.J.,
from C5 to C10 paraffins. Thermal cracking of naphtha 1984). The subcooled void fraction is calculated in the
generates high ethane yield, which can be easily case of phase transition,.
converted to more valuable product, ethylene also by The radiant box supplies heat to the cracking coils by
thermal cracking. Therefore there usually exist two burning fuels. The radiant box is one of the most
types of furnaces. difficult units to be modeled because of its complex
In the radiant box, combustion of fuel gas and/or fuel radiative heat transfer mechanism. In CRACKER, the
oil occurs to provide the heat to the cracking coil one gas zone method is chosen to handle various types
reactors. The detail configuration of cracking reactors of reactor configuration, and each coil is regarded as
varies depending on the licensor and the cracking feed the equivalent plane. The radiative properties are
type. In the reactor, numerous cracking reactions calculated by the weighted sum of gray gases model
occur to produce ethylene and propylene. Against the (Song T.H., 1996).
undesirable side reactions in the hot product stream, The reaction mechanism of thermal cracking of
the product stream from the reactor is quenched in the hydrocarbons is generally accepted as free-radical
TLE in which high pressure steam is generated. The chain reaction. CRACKER has its own free-radical
remaining heat from the radiant box is used for reaction set with the kinetic parameters for 84 species
preheating the feed, the boiler feed water, and the and 358 reactions. The governing mass, energy, and
steam in the convection section. A phase transition momentum balance equations for the cracking coil
occurs during preheating boiler feed water or liquid constitute the two-point boundary value problem
naphtha feed. Figure 1 shows the simplified ethane which has a significant stiffness in numerical
cracking furnace diagram. In the ethane cracking simulation due to the large difference of concentration
furnace, there is a heat integrating element between hot gradient between radicals and molecules. In
product stream after TLE and cold preheated feed CRACKER, this problem can be tackled through the
stream. But the naphtha cracking furnace has no application of the orthogonal collocation method using
recycle element which exists in the ethane cracker. finite element. The coking model is also combined
with the cracking model. The pressure drop, the outlet

Figure 2. Control screen of feed characterization module

 measuring variables to the lower dimensional subspace
and remove the noises irrelevant to the process while
the major process information is still maintained. The
confidence level of the results from the neural network
model can be identified by the PCA plot as shown in
Figure 3.

CRACKER : Feed characterization module

Figure 2 shows the input variables in the left column:
ASTM boiling temperatures, specific gravity, and
PINA weight fractions. The inputs can be typed
directly or loaded from a text file. By clicking the
‘Calculation’ button, the principal component analysis
plot is drawn for the decision of the confidence level
Figure 3. Principal component analysis plot and the output data column is filled with the
temperature and the produced steam flow rate of the characterized component data. Since paraffin and iso-
TLE can be calculated. paraffin 5 to 7 are known to generate high ethylene
The relationship between commercial indices and yields, users can easily distinguish good naphtha. By
conventional components is nonlinear and thus a using this feed characterization function, plant
neural network model is used for feed characterization. operators can determine an operating strategy to mix
In order to increase the confidence level of the and co-crack different kinds of naphtha and/or can
developed neural network model, the data are choose the best naphtha from the given commercial
pretreated by the mean centering and the variance indices such as ASTM, specific gravity, PINA analysis
scaling and performing the principal component when purchasing the feed. The quantitative ethylene
analysis(PCA). For the multivariate statistics, it is yield can be obtained from the combined use of the
necessary to understand a data set by considering a feed characterization module and the furnace simulator
group of variables together rather than to focus on only module, of which the description is following.
one variable at a time. By replacing a group of
variables with a single new variable, the multi- CRACKER : Furnace simulation module
dimensional problem can be classified. The PCA is a Figure 4 shows the furnace geometry input screen for
quantitatively rigorous method for this purpose. The CRACKER. Input screen of CRACKER consists of 4
newly defined variables or the principal components sections: the feed information, the furnace geometry,
reduce the dimension of the system by projecting the the reactor configuration, and the furnace operating

Figure 4. Furnace geometry input folder

 Figure 5. Reactor configuration input folder
conditions. Also for the simulation module, all the When the necessary input data are completely
inputs can be typed directly or loaded from a text file. provided, users can run the program by clicking the
When all the necessary inputs are filled out, the ‘Run’ button. Then the summarized results of the
processing icon changes its color to proceed to the next calculation are shown in the right side of the furnace
step. At the feed information section, the feed operation section. The detail results including
characterization module is shown and the calculated composition, temperature, and pressure profiles along
output is given to the furnace simulation module. At the reactor length can be shown by clicking ‘detail
the furnace geometry input section, information on the results’ button. When users set the coking mode ‘on’ in
number of reactors in a furnace, the sizes of the radiant the simulation mode, the time-transient behavior can
box and the convection section, and the configuration be shown.
of the tubes and fins in the convection section should
be provided. Also the stream information for the EXAMPLE 1 : Characterization of three kinds
convection section is necessary. By clicking each of typical naphtha
section button in Figure 4, the inputs can be typed in.
To see the capability of the feed characterization
The reactor details are given to the CRACKER in the
reactor configuration input section as shown in Figure
Table 1. Characteristics of naphtha for comparison
5. In this section, all the reactor details including
Characteristics of typical naphtha
center-to-center distance, bend length, bend degree,
tube diameter, tube thermal conductivity and refractory Light mid heavy
emissivity are entered. All the physical and transport ASTM (oC)
properties for the fuel gas, the flue gas, and the process IBP 38 46 45
stream (liquid and/or gas phase) are calculated 10% 52 61 68
automatically in CRACKER. Finally, all the operating 50% 71 88 110
conditions including the fixed operating conditions
such as the coil outlet pressure and temperature, the 90% 113 138 158
severity, and the conditions of fuels and air are given EBP 141 170 195
to the furnace operation input section as shown in PINA(wt%)
Figure 6. The tuning parameters such as overall heat n-paraffins 44.38 37.03 35.44
transfer coefficients and coking rate factor can be i-paraffins 39.73 34.17 35.16
adjusted to make the model prediction close to the
Naphthenes 12.2 19.7 20.8
actual data. For the convergence of the furnace model,
the advanced numerical inputs such as the number of Aromatics 3.7 9.1 8.6
finite elements and the knot position can be adjusted. Sp.gr. 0.6790 0.7056 0.7180
 Figure 6. Furnace operation input folder
module, three kinds of typical naphtha are tested. The prediction of ethylene yield is possible.
composition distributions of the naphtha tested can not
be estimated by the commercial indices only as given
in table 1. With the aid of CRACKER feed EXAMPLE 2 : Naphtha cracking furnace
characterization module, the compositions of the three simulation
different naphtha can be obtained with a high
To see the simulation of thermal cracking furnace, one
confidence level as shown in Figure 7. According to
of the industrial naphtha cracking furnaces is simulated.
this figure, the three kinds of typical naphtha are in the
The inputs are based on industrial data. Based on the
range of trained data, so the neural network outputs
light naphtha, the calculated radiant box and
can be thought to be reliable and the converted
convection section information is shown in table 3. By
conventional components results are shown in table 2.
the CRACKER furnace simulation module, the
Users can clearly identify the better naphtha for the
detailed compositions, temperature and pressure
ethylene yield by the converted results. Heavy naphtha
profiles can be obtained. Figure 8 shows the ethylene
has lower paraffin compositions and higher inactive
and propylene composition, temperature, and pressure
pseudo-component fraction. By using this function,
profiles along the reactor for the three kinds of typical
plant operators can determine the optimal operating
naphtha. According to the figure, the light naphtha
strategy for co-cracking of feed materials. And with
the furnace simulation module, the quantitative Table 2. Converted naphtha composition
Light Mid Heavy
naphtha naphtha naphtha
NP4 3.97 1.39 2.07
NP5 17.47 13.91 8.27
NP6 13.93 10.48 6.72
NP7 6.43 4.85 6.95
NP8 1.77 2.89 5.99
IP5 12.55 7.98 8.64
IP6 14.81 13.22 7.69
IP7 8.52 6.74 6.78
IP8 3.20 4.08 7.01
N5 0.76 0.93 0.47
N6 3.96 5.35 3.59
N7 5.35 6.80 7.96
Figure 7. Data classification using PCA P.C. 7.29 21.37 27.84
 C2H4 C3H6

0.18
0.35

0.16
0.30
0.14
0.25
0.12

weight fraction
weight fraction
0.20 0.10

0.15 0.08

0.06
0.10
0.04
0.05
0.02
0.00
0.00

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30

reactor length (m) reactor length (m)

1200 230

1150 220 light naphtha

mid naphtha
1100 210 heavy naphtha
temperature (K)

pressure (kPa)
1050
200

1000
190

950
180

900
170

850
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 160
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
reactor length (m)
reactor length (m)

Figure 8. Furnace simulation results

shows the highest yields of ethylene and propylene as and transfer line heat exchanger, and neural network
expected. And the reacted amount of the light naphtha modeling for feed characterization. CRACKER can
is relatively larger than that of the heavy naphtha thus successfully quantify the complex feed naphtha and
the amount of heat of reaction term is larger. Therefore simulate the operating conditions of an industrial scale
the temperature gradient of the light naphtha along the plant. CRACKER has convenient graphic user
reactor length is smaller than that of the heavy naphtha interface and it can be easily used for the training of
and the coil outlet temperature is lower than that of the ethylene plant operators. Also it can be used for
heavy naphtha. For the same reason, the pressure determining the optimal operating strategy ranging
gradient is larger in negative direction, which means from the feed purchase, co-cracking, fuel flow rate
larger pressure drop. Thus the coil inlet pressure is control, hydrocarbon feed load control, and so on. Also
higher in the light naphtha than in the heavy naphtha. it can used for the design purpose. CRACKER can be
The ethylene selectivity decreases as the coil outlet expected to help to maximize the plant efficiency and
temperature and/or the coil inlet pressure increase profit.
because the high temperature and/or pressure promote
coke deposition. Acknowledgement
This work was partially supported by the Korea
CONCLUSIONS
Energy Management Corporation and the Yeungnam
CRACKER, a PC based thermal cracking furnace University research grants in 1998.
simulator is developed based on the rigorous modeling
of the radiant box, convection section, cracking reactor, REFERENCES
Table 3. Simulation results for radiant box and Chapman, A.J., "Heat Transfer", Macmillan, 4th ed.,
convection section 1984
Operating variables Simulation Plehiers P.M., Reyniers G.C., and Froment, G.F.,
Flame temperature 2271.79 K "Simulation of the Run length of an ethane cracking
Averaged gas temp. 1719.52 K furnace", Ind.Eng.Chem.Res., 29, 636, 1990
Averaged cracking tube skin temp. 1363.07 K Rao M., Plehiers P.M., Froment G.F., "The coupled
Bridge wall temperature 1498.61 K simulation of heat transfer and reaction in a pyrolysis
Stack temperature 421.716 K furnace", Chem.Eng.Sci., 43(6), 1223, 1988
Thermal efficiency of furnace 36.77 % Song, TH, "WSGGM user's manual",KAIST,1996
feed preheating outlet temp. 432.68 K Wagner, E.S., Hamid, O.A., Sohn, E.M., Preston, R.F.,
BFW outlet vapor fraction 25.8 % "PYROTEC's ethylene plant furnace modeling
super heated steam out temp 844.01 K technology coupled with ASPENTECH's real-time
Mixed feed inlet temp. 593.23 K optimization system provides off-line and on-line
Cross over temp. 953.21 K benefits", ASPEN WORLD 97, 1997