Impact of New Manufacturing Technologies on the Petrochemical Industry in the United States: A Methane-to-Aromatics Case Study

Abstract Recent growth in natural gas and natural gas liquid feedstocks available for the chemical manufacturing industry in the United States has changed feedstock costs, potentially making new technologies cost-competitive with traditional chemical manufacturing routes. Because of the interconnected material flows throughout many parts of the chemical manufacturing industry, introducing new technologies can potentially change the use of many related processes throughout the chemical manufacturing system. A network model of the 2012 United States petrochemical industry has been used to analyze the effect of a new methane-to-aromatics technology on the industry’s structure. The analysis examines the relationship between process cost and utilization and the ancillary effects caused by introduction of the new technology. Finally, the results show how selectivity of aromatic products from the new process is related to the cost-point when the process is likely to be introduced.