Americas white paper

Quadrise is proud to have been active in the Americas for over 10 years.

By deploying MSAR® technology in the region, significant economic value and environmental benefits can be rapidly achieved and Quadrise has produced the following White Paper to expand on the issues and opportunities. The highlights are as follows:

Executive Summary

Executive Summary

The Heavy Fuel Oil Problem

The oil industry has a problem. There are supply and demand imbalances from both quantity and quality perspectives; with crude oils and refined products invariably not where they are needed and not of the quality that the market wants.

Refineries are designed to address these imbalances, but refining requirements change over time due to market forces and legislation, resulting in suboptimal operations. As the world demands more cleaner oil products, the costs of producing them increase.

If energy industry participants are unable to economically configure their infrastructure to produce lighter, cleaner products, whilst efficiently transitioning to renewables, then they stand to lose billions of dollars of revenue, thousands of jobs, and they will be left behind by their peers and competitors.

Despite being one of the world’s leading producers of oil and gas products, the Americas are witnessing a transformation to renewables, with substantial investments and advancements being made in the region and globally. During this transition, which will last generations, it is vital that fossil fuel resources are used as efficiently as possible to maximize revenues and minimize emissions.

In parallel with the transition to renewables there is also an underlying shift in demand from heavy, sour to lighter, sweet oil products, accelerated by new International Maritime Organisation (“IMO”) regulations on marine fuel that became effective on January 1, 2020.

Conventional Solutions are not always the Answer

Conventional methods of shifting oil production and refining to match new regulations and market demands are expensive, time consuming and energy intensive – leading to increased greenhouse gas emissions. In a low oil price environment where permanent shifts in demand have already taken place, these methods are typically not a viable solution and risk being outmoded before they are commissioned.

Regions which require substantial imports of distillates to meet local energy demands (due to upstream production and or refinery configurations) have felt this shift harder than most. The Americas is one such region; with Mexico and Ecuador both being heavily impacted in upstream and downstream operations. Whilst the costs of these imports have reduced in the short-term, this still represents a significant balance of trade issue for the affected countries.

The MSAR® Solution

Quadrise’s MSAR® technology offers a unique, proven solution to these problems.

For refineries producing fuel oil, MSAR® technology creates value by improving refinery yields and margins by reducing manufacturing costs.

Economic value is delivered for MSAR® fuel consumers through lower fuel costs enabled by the increased refinery efficiency. At the same time, environmental benefits of significantly reduced NOx and particulate emissions are realised due to the composition of the fuel.

MSAR® technology comprises a low-cost, modular process to create an oil-in-water emulsion fuel oil (MSAR® fuel) that controls the viscosity of the oil without distillate diluents. It uses low value, treated water-streams to dilute the heavy oil residues as micro-droplets, with the resultant emulsion stabilised by proprietary surfactant additives. This approach frees up valuable distillates, which can be sold as premium transport fuels, or reduces expensive imports.  Due to its lower viscosity, MSAR® also reduces energy costs associated with transportation and storage for producers and consumers.

MSAR® systems can be operational in under one year, which significantly and rapidly increases refinery profits whilst producing a cheaper, cleaner fuel that uses existing fuel oil infrastructure. This is in stark contrast to the expensive, conventional refinery upgrading solutions, that take many years to implement.

For upstream companies producing heavy oil, MSAR® technology’s viscosity control can provide solutions for reducing in field steam and power costs and or mobilising stranded assets, alongside environmental advantages.

MSAR® technology and fuel also embeds improved environmental and societal benefits for refiners and utilities. It is the cleanest way of upgrading heavy oil value in a refinery, delivering significant savings and lower CO₂ emissions vs alternatives. MSAR® fuel:

• Generates 30% fewer emissions of NOx gases.
• Reduces particulates, with no black carbon/soot, lowering global warming potential.
• Lowers ash disposal costs, improving metals recovery economics, and enabling local vanadium redox battery manufacture for sustainable renewable energy growth.

In markets where volatile pricing, shifting regulatory regimes and unpredictable demand are creating existential challenges, MSAR® offers a unique, economic and environmentally superior solution.

The Americas are ideally placed to benefit – with adoption of MSAR® fuel by refineries and utilities able to deliver savings of US$100 million per annum per candidate refinery¹, together with significant domestic and export opportunities from new specialised industries.

MSAR® technology enables existing oil resources and assets to be used efficiently and economically, addressing the heavy fuel oil problem, hence smoothing the path to a sustainable future.

Savings stated are for 100-200KBPD semi-complex refineries in Ecuador and Mexico.

Summary

The Americas are planning a major shift to the use of renewables. However, in the medium-term, oil will continue to be of significant value to the economy as a source of revenue generation and job retention. During this transition, it will be important to manage the use of existing oil-based facilities to minimise costs, maximise asset values and drive further improvements in environmental performance. There are several ways in which the region’s oil and power industries can respond to the challenges, although most solutions are complex, multi-billion-dollar projects that take many costly years to implement.

The region is poised to be an early beneficiary of the use of simple, low-cost, modular MSAR® technology that can be implemented within one year and delivers rapid returns alongside significant improvements in environmental performance, creating a sustainable pathway to renewables – optimising the use of existing fossil-fuel resources.

The Americas are ideally placed to benefit – with adoption of MSAR® fuel by refineries and utilities able to deliver significant savings of US$100 million per annum per candidate refinery², together with significant emissions reductions as well as domestic and export opportunities from new specialised industries.

^1,2Savings stated are for 100-200KBPD semi-complex refineries in Ecuador and Mexico.

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