Ethylene is big. Over 150 million metric tons of it was produced worldwide in 2016.
Ethylene is big. Over 150 million metric tons of it was produced worldwide in 2016 (more than half of that for producing PE).
Most of it is purified using cryogenic distillation, a very energy-intensive process. Now a more energy-efficient process seems to appear on the horizon in the form of a silica-only (no aluminum ions) zeolite, called ITQ-55, that absorbs ethylene a hundred times better than ethane.
(with thanks to Arjen Dijkgraaf)