Electric Steam Cracking

ethylene · e-furnaces · petrochemicals

Electric cracking furnaces have run at Ludwigshafen since 2024. A full-size electric cracker would draw about as much power as a large data center.

Electric power needed to crack without gas: the BASF demonstration plant's two furnaces about 6 MW; one full-size furnace roughly 30 to 60 MW; a world-scale cracker roughly 0.5 to 1 GW (estimates). CO2 per metric ton of ethylene: 1.5 to 2 t from a gas-fired cracker; electric cracking on clean power cuts it by 90% or more. ELECTRIC POWER TO CRACK WITHOUT GAS BASF demo (2 furnaces) 6 MW One full-size furnace ~30-60 MW* World-scale cracker ~0.5-1 GW* * ElectronsX estimates from furnace heat duty CO2 PER METRIC TON OF ETHYLENE Gas-fired cracker 1.5-2 t Electric, clean power 90%+ lower
Demo
~6 MW
CO2 per t
1.5-2 t
Cut
90%+
Full plant
~0.5-1 GW
Hub
Industry

Finding

Electric cracking runs at demonstration scale; a full plant would need as much power as a large data center

Steam crackers turn ethane or naphtha into ethylene and propylene, the base of most plastics, at 800-900 °C in gas-fired furnaces that emit 1.5-2 metric tons of CO2 per ton of ethylene. Since April 2024, BASF, SABIC and Linde have run two electrically heated demonstration furnaces, about 6 MW in total, inside BASF's Ludwigshafen cracker - one heating the tubes directly with current, one with radiant elements around them.

The technology is now being sold - Linde as STARBRIDGE, Lummus as SRT-e (selected by Braskem in Brazil), Coolbrook with its RotoDynamic Reactor - but scaling it is a power problem. A world-scale cracker would draw on the order of half a gigawatt to a gigawatt of electricity around the clock, at a constant load that needs firm, cheap, clean power; a fired cracker also burns its own byproduct fuel gas, which an electric plant would have to sell or use elsewhere.

That makes the US Gulf Coast both the biggest prize and the hardest case. It holds the largest concentration of ethane crackers in the world, fed by cheap shale gas that makes the fired furnace hard to beat on cost; see AustinIO's Houston Ship Channel petrochemical complex. China added most of the world's new ethylene capacity in the 2020s, all of it fired. Electric crackers are likeliest to appear first where power is cheap and carbon is priced, starting in Europe.

Process

What gets electrified in a cracker

Electrified steam cracking process chain
StepElectric equipmentRole
Feed preheatingElectric preheatersHeats feed and steam before cracking
Cracking furnaceElectrically heated coils (direct or radiant)Replaces gas burners; no flue gas
QuenchTransfer-line exchangersStops the reaction; recovers heat as steam
Compression and separationElectric-drive compressors, cryogenic columnsMany plants already drive compressors with steam turbines; electric drives replace them

Developers

Who is building electric crackers

Electric steam cracking developers
DeveloperCountryTechnologyStatus
BASF, SABIC, LindeGermanyTwo e-furnaces, ~6 MW, at LudwigshafenOperating since April 2024
Linde (STARBRIDGE)GermanyCommercial e-cracking furnace offerMarketed
Lummus (SRT-e)USElectric cracking heater; Braskem industrial demonstrationEngineering
Coolbrook (RotoDynamic Reactor)Finland / NetherlandsRotating-machine cracking reactorPilot
Dow and ShellNetherlandsJoint e-cracking developmentPilot

Sources

Sources and scope

Scope
Electric heating of steam cracking furnaces for ethylene and propylene
Sources
BASF, SABIC and Linde (April 2024); Chemistry World; Power Magazine on Lummus and Braskem; ElectronsX estimates
Updated
October 2026