Techno‐Economic Analysis of Monetizing Shale Gas to Butadiene

The recent discoveries of substantial reserves of shale gas have significantly impacted butadiene production and prices. Shale gas offers a competitive feedstock that can be used to produce a variety of chemicals and petrochemicals including butadiene. The objective of this work is to examine the technical and economic viability of converting shale gas to butadiene. A base case is created for producing butadiene from shale gas via ethylene as an intermediate. Computer-aided process simulation was used to design the process and to obtain the data necessary for economic evaluation. Two design scenarios were considered and compared. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis was carried out to evaluate the impact of price volatility of butadiene on the process profitability.