Heavy ends (C8 and MTBE) to the site fuel oil system

Activity Isobutene by MTBE cracking (50 kt/a, gas-phase cleavage), GLO: the inventory of 1 kilogram of its reference product, attributional, cut-off.

Calculation maturity: not assessed Design maturity: Concept (research)Not independently reviewedisobutene-1:isobutene-by-mtbe-cracking-50-kt-a-gas-phase-cleavage:product:HEAVIESPreliminaryReport a problem with this dataset
Research outputAn inventory from a research design at the design maturity its process states, not verified plant data: check its calculation maturity and review status before use. Background activities are referenced by name only; no background data is included. All caveats

What it is

Unallocated foreground LCI of Isobutene by MTBE cracking (50 kt/a, gas-phase cleavage), case design, derived from the flowsheet by cheme assess lca.

Reference product
1 kilogram of Heavy ends (C8 and MTBE) to the site fuel oil system (10.1 bar(a), 162.75 degC, 65.6294 % MTBE (mole))
CAS
not available
Code
isobutene-1:isobutene-by-mtbe-cracking-50-kt-a-gas-phase-cleavage:product:HEAVIES
Dataset
isobutene-by-mtbe-cracking-50-kt-a-gas-phase-cleavage version 0.1.0 · UUID e0b18d58-f8de-54c5-abdf-6fa7c7bb39da
Activity UUID
not available (the library assigns none; use the code)
Database
cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-c3ab348 (version preview-c3ab348)
Process
Isobutene by MTBE cracking (50 kt/a, gas-phase cleavage)
Geography
GLO · background inputs with a site rule link at the user's site location (default DE)
Time period
2026 · valid until 2031
Technology
gas-phase MTBE cracking over an acidic silica-alumina type catalyst, heated multitubular reactor 553 K / 0.9 MPa, conversion 0.90 per pass with MTBE recycle, water wash, drying/DME column, methanol recovery; 50 kt/a isobutene, concept design · level current
Boundary
gate-to-gate foreground of the plant
Production volume
50,000,000 kg/a (product:IBP per hour x operation.hours_per_year (8000 h/a))
Classification
ISIC Rev.4 2011 (taxonomy/families.yaml (ISIC Rev.4) of the process's families)
System model
attributional, cut-off (docs/system-model.md, methodology 1.1.0)
Allocation
mass, 0.32 % of the dataset to this product (rule deviation, from study)
The WBCSD price-ratio rule cannot be applied: no co-product prices are set at the concept stage and the registry holds none for isobutene or methanol.
Rights
CC-BY-4.0: the ChemE-as-Code process library's own concept design (LICENSE-DATA)

Exchanges per 1 kilogram of Heavy ends (C8 and MTBE) to the site fuel oil system

As exported: allocated and scaled to the reference product. Provenance: 7 assumed, 1 calculated. Pedigree scores (1 best, 5 worst): reliability, completeness, temporal correlation, geographical correlation, further technological correlation.

Preliminary1 exchange is not yet linked to a background dataset. It counts no burden, so the inventory is incomplete: do not read a result from it as complete.
InputAmountUnitProvenancePedigreeLinked to
Fresh MTBE (boundary feed from an MTBE unit or terminal)
feed:MTBEF
fresh MTBE S1 (design basis D-003)
From stream S1
1kilogramassumed4 4 1 3 3unlinked
unlinked, no technosphere mapping: no mapping (no chemical slug or factor id); add it to lci/mappings.yaml technosphere or to the process's lca/mappings.yaml exchanges
Demineralised make-up water (wash-water loop)
feed:DMW
wash-water make-up S23 (D-007)
From stream S23
0.00448kilogramassumed4 4 1 3 3market for water, deionised (water, deionised, RoW) in your background (default ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff)
Electric power
feed:POWER
pumps, lumped Q1, and H-101 fan and hot-oil circulation Q18 (ASSUMED 30 kW, D-009)
electricity
From streams Q1, Q18
0.004621kilowatt hourassumed4 4 1 3 3market for electricity, medium voltage (electricity, medium voltage, DE, site location) in your background (default ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff)
Fired heat from natural gas (superheater and reactor heating)
feed:FUEL
H-101 absorbed duty Q4 + Q5 (feed superheat and reactor heat, D-009)
heat, natural gas firing, 626.85 degC
From streams Q4, Q5
0.2212kilowatt hourassumed4 4 1 3 3Atlas: heat from natural gas, industrial furnace, per kWh (Atlas unit proxy) (heat from natural gas, by energy, GLO)
MP steam 1500 kPa(a)
feed:MPS
C-101 reboiler Q2 (D-009)
steam, MP, 198.25 degC, 15 bar(a)
From stream Q2
0.2031kilowatt hourassumed4 4 1 3 3Atlas: heat from steam, per kWh (Atlas unit proxy) (heat from steam, by energy, GLO)
LP steam 450 kPa(a)
feed:LPS
C-201, C-301, C-402, C-403 reboilers Q7, Q12, Q14, Q9 (D-009)
steam, LP, 147.65 degC, 4.5 bar(a)
From streams Q7, Q9, Q12, Q14
0.2268kilowatt hourassumed4 4 1 3 3Atlas: heat from steam, per kWh (Atlas unit proxy) (heat from steam, by energy, GLO)
Wash-water purge to the site wastewater treatment
product:WW
wash-water purge S20, 5 % of the regenerated water (D-007)
From stream S20
0.004922kilogramcalculated3 4 1 3 3Atlas (plant): wastewater to treatment, per kg (Atlas unit proxy) (wastewater, by mass, GLO)
compatible: grade the input names wastewater only; wastewater (Wastewater treated) is taken; unit kilogram; system model cutoff (one database); allocation mass (single-output); boundary plant gate of a site utility: no utility market yet (docs/markets.md)
Cooling water return
product:CW
heat to cooling water Q3, Q6, Q8, Q10, Q11, Q13, Q15, Q16, Q17 (D-009)
cold, 25 degC
From streams Q3, Q6, Q8, Q10, Q11, Q13, Q15, Q16, Q17
0.5348kilowatt hourassumed4 4 1 3 3Atlas (plant): cooling water service, per kWh heat rejected (Atlas screening proxy) (heat rejected to cooling water, GLO)
compatible: grade the input names cooling-water only; cooling-water (Heat rejected to cooling water, 25/35 degC) is taken; unit kilowatt hour; carrier cold, 25 degC from cold, 25 degC; system model cutoff (one database); allocation mass (single-output); boundary plant gate of a site utility: no utility market yet (docs/markets.md)

Elementary flows

No elementary flows are exported for this activity (pass-through emissions and free inputs are left out, see the caveats).

The streams are the plant's own flows: an amount here is allocated and per 1 kilogram of Heavy ends (C8 and MTBE) to the site fuel oil system, so it differs from the stream's flow, and it can sum several streams.

Where these numbers come from: each exchange names its source above; the dataset is processes/isobutene-1/lca/dataset.yaml in library version c3ab348.

Used by

No other activity of this database links to it.

How good it is

Review
Not reviewed: no LCI review record yet
Data quality
DQR 2.33 · PEF-style DQR 2.72
TeR 3 · GeR 3 · TiR 1 · P 3.88 · C 4 · weakest TeR · primary data 0 %
Mass and carbon closure
Assessed (lca/manifest.json balance, tolerance 5 %: design maturity concept (sourced screening))
  • lci-carbon-origin: closed
  • lci-element-balance: closed
  • lci-mass-balance: closed
Change report
Not available: this build has no change report against an earlier release.

KPI benchmark positions

Not available: no benchmarked KPI for this dataset.

How to use it

Downloads

A file with this activity alone is not available: each file above is the whole database, and the line under it says how to find this activity there.

import bw2data as bd
from cheme_as_code_lci import install

bd.projects.set_current("my-project")   # holds your licensed background + biosphere3
install("cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-c3ab348.xlsx", background="ecoinvent-3.11-cutoff", location="DE")
activity = bd.get_activity(("cheme-as-code-atlas-preview-c3ab348", "isobutene-1:isobutene-by-mtbe-cracking-50-kt-a-gas-phase-cleavage:product:HEAVIES"))

While any exchange of the database has no mapping, install() writes nothing and only lists the unlinked exchanges. So the last line finds no activity until the gaps are mapped: the download section gives the ways to use the database now.

How to cite

Heavy ends (C8 and MTBE) to the site fuel oil system, from Isobutene by MTBE cracking (50 kt/a, gas-phase cleavage) (dataset isobutene-by-mtbe-cracking-50-kt-a-gas-phase-cleavage 0.1.0), ChemE-as-Code Process Atlas LCI database preview-c3ab348, activity isobutene-1:isobutene-by-mtbe-cracking-50-kt-a-gas-phase-cleavage:product:HEAVIES. Cite the Process Atlas paper (in preparation, 2026), by Artur M. Schweidtmann and Jana M. Weber, and the ChemE-as-Code Process Atlas LCI database version preview-c3ab348.

DOI: none yet (the Process Atlas paper is in preparation)

For the data, cite the Process Atlas paper; for the platform that builds and checks it, the ChemE-as-Code paper.

Schweidtmann, A. M. & Weber, J. M. (2026, in preparation). Process Atlas: an open, git-native, reproducible library and life cycle inventory of chemical processes (working title).

BibTeX
@unpublished{schweidtmann_process_atlas,
  author = {Schweidtmann, Artur M. and Weber, Jana M.},
  title = {{Process Atlas: an open, git-native, reproducible library and life cycle inventory of chemical processes (working title)}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://atlas.cheme-as-code.org},
  note = {in preparation}
}

Schweidtmann, A. M. (2026, in preparation). ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for AI-Accelerated Chemical Process Engineering (working title).

BibTeX
@unpublished{schweidtmann_cheme_as_code,
  author = {Schweidtmann, Artur M.},
  title = {{ChemE-as-Code: An Open-Source Platform for AI-Accelerated Chemical Process Engineering (working title)}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://cheme-as-code.org},
  note = {in preparation}
}