May 14, 2026 14:52

The Skyline project to modernize the furnaces at Shell Chemicals’ ethane steam cracker in Moerdijk, the Netherlands, has been completed, leaving the units ready at the end of 2025.

Implemented by Technip Energies, the project doubled the capacity of each furnace. This allowed the number of cracking furnaces to be reduced from 16 to 8 without affecting the site’s overall ethylene capacity of more than 900,000 tonnes/year.

Thanks to a modular approach, the project had no significant impact on production. It also optimized energy performance and reduced CO2 emissions by around 10%, supporting Shell’s energy transition targets.

Additional process safety improvements were also implemented, with investment costs lower than those required for a new plant.

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