The ethylene production process is carried out at temperatures ranging from 900 to 1000°C. The commonly used materials for the ethylene production tubes are Incoloy alloy 803 and variants of castable austenitic stainless steel grade HP. Tubes of both alloys undergo coking and carburization during operation. The coking requires the ethylene production process to be stopped in order to burn coke. The coking process occurs in two to three weeks of operation, and it can take two to three days to burn coke prior to resuming the production process. This presentation will describe progress made to date in the development of advanced alloys and intermetallics that resist coke formation or delay the process by nearly a factor of three to five as opposed to current materials. The current status of development including the status of ethylene tube fabrication from the new materials will be discussed.

*Research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Industrial Technologies Program, Industrial Materials for the Future, under contact DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC.