Ethylene is one of the most important products of chemical industry. Production of ethylene increases by year due to its extensive usage in polymer industry. The most important way of producing ethylene is steam cracking of hydrocarbons. It uses raw materials such as fossil fuels and exposes it to high temperatures and steam which leads to cracking of hydrocarbon chains and formation of hydrocarbons with lower molecular mass. The cracking process is followed by complex process of separation of all hydrocarbons in order to get clean products for subsequent usage in other industries. Beside ethylene, propylene and pyrolysis gasoline (rich with aromatics) are significant products from stean cracking. Steam cracking is a very developed process and other processes of ethylene production can't even come close to it. New ethylene production methods that have lowered emission of CO₂ and use renewable resources are being developed because of increased enviromental awareness and lower stock of fossil fuels. Most of processes are still in the phase of development but they show promising results. Some of the processes that are being developed include production from methanol (which is produced from waste CO₂), oxidative coupling of methane, electrochemical reduction of CO₂ and production through plants. These processes will be necessary in the further future but for now steam cracking remains the main way of ethylene production.