The eFurnace demonstration plant at the Ludwigshafen site

Steam crackers are the engines at the heart of the chemical industry. The high-temperature, gas-powered furnaces are essential for basic chemical production, but the process is energy-intensive and emits significant amounts of CO2. To address the climate and energy challenge, BASF, SABIC and Linde have inaugurated the world’s first demonstration plant for large-scale, electrically heated steam cracking furnaces in April 2024. Our goal for this project: Using renewable energy in this process and with that reducing CO2 emissions of one of the most energy-intensive production processes in the chemical industry by at least 90% compared to technologies commonly used today.

In the eFurnace demonstration plant, two heating concepts are being tested in parallel: direct heating, where the electric current is directly supplied to the process pipes inside the reactor, and indirect heating, using radiant heat from heating elements surrounding the pipes.

The prototype is fully integrated into the steam crackers at the Ludwigshafen site and is unique in this scale.