Shell’s cracker plant
> Monaca, Pa. — The 386-acre property > The plant that Royal Dutch Shell is building about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh
> It has been about 15 years since hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, took hold in Pennsylvania, which sits atop the huge gas reserve of the Marcellus Shale. But natural gas prices have collapsed and profit must be found elsewhere, namely the natural gas byproduct ethane, which is unleashed during fracking and can be made into polyethylene, a common form of plastic.
It’s now under construction and is expected to create some 6,000 construction jobs,
the company says. Commercial operation is due to begin “early in the next decade” and will employ about 600 people permanently.
The operation is due to make 1.6 million tonnes a year of ethylene, which is used in products ranging from food packaging to automotive parts.
> When completed, the facility will be fed by pipelines stretching hundreds of miles across Appalachia. It will have its own rail system with 3,300 freight cars. And it will produce more than a million tons each year the company says. Commercial operation is due to begin “early in the next decade” and will employ about 600 people permanently.
The operation is due to make 1.6 million tonnes a year of ethylene, which is used in products ranging from food packaging to automotive parts.
> It has been about 15 years since hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, took hold in Pennsylvania, which sits atop the huge gas reserve of the Marcellus Shale. But natural gas prices have collapsed and profit must be found elsewhere, namely the natural gas byproduct ethane, which is unleashed during fracking and can be made into polyethylene, a common form of plastic.
> Plastics is also solving a challenge for the state’s fracking industry. The western part of the Marcellus Shale produces not just methane gas that is used for heating homes and cooking, but also so-called wet gases like ethane.
Ethane has a higher energy level, measured in British thermal units, or BTUs, than methane.
There are regulatory limits on how many BTUs can be safely used in homes and businesses.
So, much of the ethane is stripped out of the gas before the methane is shipped.
Plastic production is one of the few viable uses for the ethane, and without it some fracking executives say they would not be able to operate many of their wells.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...-the-world-plastic/ar-AAFFEX8?ocid=spartanntpThere are regulatory limits on how many BTUs can be safely used in homes and businesses.
So, much of the ethane is stripped out of the gas before the methane is shipped.
Plastic production is one of the few viable uses for the ethane, and without it some fracking executives say they would not be able to operate many of their wells.
https://www.wtae.com/article/foreig...ker-plant-beaver-county-pennsylvania/28322186
https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/tag/ethane-cracker/
