Data envelopment analysis (DEA) have been widely applied in the energy efficiency evaluation of process systems. However, the DEA has many different kinds of models and characteristics, which leads to different discrimination power in different application fields. Particularly in efficiency evaluation of petrochemical systems, the proper choice of DEA model makes great difference in improving the sensibility and accuracy of the result, which contributes to guiding production and improving the energy efficiency. This paper proposes a more appropriate DEA model to evaluate the production efficiency of ethylene plants, which can provide better guidance of ethylene production and energy saving. The empirical results demonstrate the effectiveness and universality of the DEA-CCR model application in energy efficiency evaluation of ethylene plants.