Modern Solutions for Modern Refiners

 

MedEuropa provides the modern refiner with low-cost and common-sense solutions for achieving its decarbonization targets while remaining cost competitive in an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) oriented economy. With a focus on sustainability underpinned by profitability, we serve to revitalize and modernize aging refineries through the implementation of proven, state-of-the-art technologies.

 

Direct Carbon Removal from Oil

 

Our Selective Extraction of Asphaltenes (SELEX-Asp) technology is a 1-step process that cleanly removes granular carbon from petroleum feedstocks in the form of asphaltene powder. The upfront removal of carbon gives a user full control of a feed’s carbon content throughout the petroleum value chain and allows the refiner to claim jurisdiction-specific carbon credits. Decarbonized oil has the added benefits of being upgraded and easier to process into commercial transportation fuel.

 

Inspired by the decaffeination process, SELEX-Asp operates under the principles of supercritical fluid extraction and fractionation, as well as supercritical solvent recovery. The process is robust and highly tunable to a refiner’s specific needs. SELEX-Asp is a low-cost option for refiners that are looking to add crude processing flexibility to their operations and can be used in conjunction with existing bottoms processing units to debottleneck a refiner’s current operations.

 

SELEX-Asp stands alone among solvent-based deasphalting processes by maximizing the recovery of decarbonized oil while removing carbon in a safe and responsible manner.  Decarbonized oil derived from SELEX-Asp is an excellent feedstock for conventional refining processes such as hydrocracking and fluid catalytic cracking. SELEX-Asp disrupts the pattern of requiring progressively expensive processes to increase recovery of valuable refining components from residues. Expensive and carbon emissions-intensive processing units such as cokers and ebullated bed hycrocrackers can be bypassed altogether.

 

Globally, five SELEX-Asp units have been commissioned, one is under construction, and two additional SELEX-Asp units have been licensed.

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Clean Carbon Utilization

 

The carbon removed using the SELEX-Asp process is benign, stable, natural, and can be used in a wide variety of applications, such as adsorbent for water treatment and agricultural soil remediation, additive for making waterproof concrete, and other construction materials. It can also be used as feedstock for producing advanced composite carbon materials exhibiting lightweight and superior physical properties. Using clean carbon from our process to service secondary non-combustive markets will be a key factor in building a truly circular economy while modernizing and preserving the competitiveness of petroleum refineries around the world. 

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