Royal Dutch Shell has awarded an Engineering, Procurement, and Module Fabrication (EPF) contract to US-based service provider TechnipFMC to upgrade a steam cracker at its Moerdijk petrochemicals complex in the Netherlands. Under the deal, TechnipFMC will provide its proprietary equipment and services for the cracker’s eight new ethylene furnaces that will replace the 16 older units.
The new units will use TechnipFMC’s multi-lane radiant coil design and have the same combined capacity with the older ones. The upgrade is expected to improve the site’s energy efficiency and cut its CO2 emissions by 10%. The complex’s cracker will continue to operate during the upgrade because the new furnaces will be shipped in modules. Shell’s Moerdijk cracker is among the largest in Europe, capable of producing 970,000 tons/year of ethylene and 500,000 tons/year of ethylene.
