AM-13-34 Upgrading Oil Sands Bitumen Using FlexDS: Pilot Plant Performance and Economics

Description:

Auterra has developed a new oil treatment process, FlexDS, for the decontamination and upgrading of crude oil and heavy oil distillates through oxydesulfurization. FlexDS, with both upstream and downstream configurations, removes sulfur, nitrogen, trace metals, increases API and decreases TAN at a cost of approximately $2-9 per barrel depending on the feed. The process has a much lower carbon footprint than current methods of oil decontamination due to milder operating conditions. The FlexDS process is based on two separate, proprietary chemical processes. The first process is enabled by a titanium-based catalyst that oxidizes sulfur and nitrogen compounds, and represents a significant advancement over past oxidative desulfurization attempts. This catalyst, combined with the use of an air-derived oxidant, provides efficiency and economic gains over traditional methods of sulfur and nitrogen removal. The second chemical process cleaves the sulfone from the hydrocarbons, passing the hydrocarbons to the product stream. It is in this unit that large sulfur containing carbon species are cleaved and the hydrocarbon recovered thus providing an increase in API. FlexDS performance is stream dependent and various crudes have shown API increases of up to 150%, elimination of TAN, removal of sulfur and nitrogen to below 10 PPM, and up to 65% removal of metals.