Process Technologies

Gasel®

Axens’ Gasel® Technology aims at producing ultra-clean liquid products, notably SAF, diesel and petrochemicals feedstock (naphtha, waxes), through the conversion of synthesis gas.

The synthesis gas (also called syngas) shall be obtained from several sources such as for instance biomass, wastes, etc.

This Fischer-Tropsch (FT) route is commonly accepted as one of the most promising mid-term solutions for the production of alternative fuels and petrochemicals, including Biomass-To-Liquids (BTL), Wastes-To-Liquids (WTL) and Power-To-Liquids (PTL) pathways.

BioTfueL®

BioTfueL® technology suite is a flexible solution for producing advanced biofuels (renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel) as well as valuable coproducts (renewable naphtha, biolubes basis, biogas, bioLPG, green power & heat etc.) through a thermochemical pathway. This technology is the result of more than 10 years of R&D including the operation of two demonstration plants, which allowed to develop and validate a complete and fully integrated 4-step Biomass To Liquids (BTL) chain: pretreatment, gasification, syngas conditioning, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and upgrading.

Vegan®

Vegan® technology is a flexible solution for producing SAF and renewable diesel through the hydrotreatment of a wide range of lipid feedstocks from vegetable oil to waste based oils.

Standalone, integrated or revamped units: Vegan® technology fits perfectly both in standalone and integrated refinery environment. Axens’ experience and customized approach help to evaluate the potential of the project.

Vegan® can be easily tuned to match the required boiling range and cold flow properties of the desired product. Producers can thus balance production from 0 to 100% between diesel or jet fuel to meet market demand.

Sulfrex™

The extractive Sulfrex™ process eliminates mercaptans and reduces the total sulfur concentration.

With its mild operating conditions of pressure and ambient temperature, this continuous process is ideal for C₃, C₄, LPG, light gasoline and NGL feeds.

The light mercaptans are extracted (Extractor) by caustic solution forming water and sodium mercaptide salts (NaSR).

These salts are oxidized (Oxidizer) by air injection in the presence of Axens' LCPS 30 catalyst, producing an organic disulfide (RSSR) phase that separates by gravity (separator) from the aqueous solution.

IFPEXOL™

IFPEXOL™ consists in using a portion of the water-saturated feed gas to recover the methanol contained in the methanol-water aqueous mixture collected in the cold process.

The methanol is stripped off and recovered as vapor in the overhead gas stream leaving the stripper, while nearly pure liquid water is drawn off from this column. The wet feed gas, containing the recovered methanol, is chilled to the required dewpoint temperature by any appropriate means (JT expansion, turbo-expander or external refrigeration).

A dry and HC-dewpointed sales gas and a HC liquid stream (NGL) are produced while the methanol-water mixture is collected separately and recycled to the IFPEXOL™ stripper.

No flash gas or low pressure off-gases are generated. Any freezing issues are avoided in the cold process thanks to the presence of the methanol that is recirculated into the cold process to inhibit the formation of hydrates or ice. A small amount of pure methanol is injected under automatic control to maintain the correct methanol concentration in the process.

IFPEXOL™

IFPEXOL™ is a simple, highly flexible and environmentally friendly process that uses recoverable methanol to allow water and HC dewpointing in a single cooling step. This technology virtually removes the complete dehydration unit from the processing plant. It provides CAPEX and OPEX savings while eliminating the on-site atmospheric emissions (CO₂, BTEX) associated with TEG Unit off-gas disposal.

IFPEXOL™ consists in using a portion of the water-saturated feed gas to recover the methanol contained in the methanol-water aqueous mixture collected in the cold process.

The methanol is stripped off and recovered as vapor in the overhead gas stream leaving the stripper, while nearly pure liquid water is drawn off from this column. The wet feed gas, containing the recovered methanol, is chilled to the required dewpoint temperature by any appropriate means (JT expansion, turbo-expander or external refrigeration).

A dry and HC-dewpointed sales gas and a HC liquid stream (NGL) are produced while the methanol-water mixture is collected separately and recycled to the IFPEXOL™ stripper.

No flash gas or low pressure off-gases are generated. Any freezing issues are avoided in the cold process thanks to the presence of the methanol that is recirculated into the cold process to inhibit the formation of hydrates or ice. A small amount of pure methanol is injected under automatic control to maintain the correct methanol concentration in the process.

TriEthylene Glycol (TEG)

Water absorption with TriEthylene Glycol (TEG) is a very well known and proven technology. It is the most common process used for gas dehydration.

Lean TEG in a gas/glycol contactor absorbs the water contained in the gas to be treated counter-currently. At the bottom of the contactor, the rich TEG (containing the absorbed water) is sent to the regeneration section where water is vaporized in a Reboiler at low pressure (close to atmospheric pressure).

Depending on the requested lean TEG purity, the lean TEG produced in the reboiler can be either:

• Pumped directly to the gas/glycol contactor (low TEG purity required)
• Stripped with stripping gas before being pumped to the gas/glycol contactor (high TEG purity required)

Drizo®

As the exclusive licensor of the Drizo® technology, Axens Solutions provides operators with the most efficient and environment-friendly dehydration solution.

Thanks to its specific Drizo® loop for optimum TEG stripping, Drizo® enables higher dehydration efficiency while minimizing BTEX/CO₂ emissions, making it the best available glycol-based dehydration process. Glycol dehydration performances rely on final glycol purity achieved by glycol regeneration. With Drizo®, up to 99.995 wt% of glycol purity is achieved instead of the typical 99.95 wt% of conventional glycol units, enabling down to 1 ppm vol. residual water in treated gas. With minimum additional equipment compared to conventional glycol units, Drizo® features higher dehydration performances for a marginal increase in investment cost. The simplicity of the Drizo® loop implementation makes it a perfect candidate to easily upgrade the performances and the environmental footprint of existing TEG units.

SweetSulf™

SweetSulf™ is a redox process developed for high-pressure natural gas, medium pressure fuel gas or low-pressure acid gas applications. Its specific solid sulfur removal technology overcomes the foaming/plugging problems experienced with other types of redox processes.

• Reaction: Sour Gas is contacted with an aqueous redox solution which extracts the H₂S and converts it into solid elemental sulfur.
• Gas separation: Treated gas, free of H₂S (H₂S specification down to < 1 ppmv is achievable), is separated from the redox solution.
• Solid separation: Solid sulfur is filtered under pressure on a cartridge filter which can be regenerated on stream.
• Re-Oxidation: The redox solution is depressurized and re-oxidized by contact with air.

Sultimate™ - AdvaSulf™ Suite

Axens offers Sultimate™, a Tail Gas Treatment (TGT) technology in sulfur recovery processing that uses conventional or proprietary amine based solvent, featuring the highest sulfur recovery achievable: typically 99.9+%.

The catalyst filled within the TGT Hydrogenation (Reduction) Reactor is one of its best feature. Axens CoMo catalyst has the best performance available on the market at low temperature, allowing drastic OPEX reduction while maintaining high activity during long run duration.