The steam cracker design and the engineering work is supplied by the contractor; the process is now considered to be mature technology, which includes the five major licensors, namely, the Linde Group, Lummus Global (CBI), Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), Technip, and Stone & Webster (being purchased by Technip from the Shaw Group). Each one of these licensors offers proprietary technology for ethylene steam cracking with one or more feedstocks as well as yields in primary olefins and derivatives. The majority of difference among the various licensors can be found in the optimization of furnace coils, separation process, production yield and specific energy consumption (SEC) or energy recovery.

Optimization furnace coils:

The coil design is one of important differences in licensors .R With regardings to steam cracker furnaces, most technologies focus on the design optimization of furnace coils, which are located in the radiant section, where cracking occurs. The goal is to improve heat transfer, raise severity, minimize coking and maximize olefin yields. Each licensor has the features. Technip-Coflexip licensor has Rradiant coils pretreated to reduce coking with a sulfur-silica mixture. ABB lummus licensor has Ddouble pass radiant coil design; online decoking reduces emissions. Linde AG licensor has Ttwin-radiantcell design (single split) which is 13 m (shorter than the average length 25 m) . Stone and webster licensor (Technip) has Ttwin-radiantcell design and quadra-cracking. Kellogg Brown & Root licensor has Ccoil design (straight, small diameter), low reaction time; very high severity. Each licensor provide its own coil design, for instance: