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Technology · FCC co-processing evidence

Raw oil stops at 1–2 wt%. PyXCrude targets 10–15.

Conditioning is designed to lift the blend wall on assets refiners already own. Published FCC evidence: recovery climbs with severity, coke collapses.

The blend wall · FCC feed fraction

Raw pyrolysis oilcommercial ceiling today1–2 wt%P
PyXCrudeconditioned · target from published pilot data10–15 wt%T
10×more renewable carbon per FCC unit at the target blend, on assets refiners already own.T

Published evidence · recovery climbs with conditioning

FPBOraw fast-pyrolysis bio-oil16%P
SDPOstabilised / de-oxygenated65%P
HPOhydrotreated pyrolysis oil76%P
75%Coke selectivity drop.P Less coke as severity rises, easing bed plugging and catalyst deactivation in the riser.

400+P

FCC units worldwide, refining's largest conversion base

25–30P

FCC refineries across the EU, UK and Norway

Zero

new core units; co-processing runs on existing assets

~6kbpdT

absorbed by a typical 60 kbpd FCC at a 10 wt% blend

How to read these numbers

  • P · Published. Published third-party result; see sources and method below.
  • T · Target. Modelled or derived target, not yet demonstrated on PyXCrude.
  • Measured · PySAF. Measured by PySAF on PyXCrude at bench scale (TRL 5). No PySAF-measured values are shown on this page.

Sources and method

Blend wall: 1–2 wt% reflects published commercial co-processing of raw pyrolysis oils; the 10–15 wt% window is consistent with continuous pilot FCC tests of conditioned biocrudes at 10–12 wt% blends. Recovery and coke: Ourlin, Torres-Martí, Venderbosch, Celebi, Karahan, Mathieu & Corma, "Integration of pyrolysis bio-oils of varying upgrading levels in FCC co-processing with VGO: Benefits and limitations", Fuel 417 (2026) 138622, doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2026.138622. SDPO (stabilised and de-oxygenated) is the closest published analogue to PyXCrude; the HPO case at 76% has additionally been hydrotreated, a downstream step outside PySAF's conditioning platform. The same study found raw fast-pyrolysis bio-oil caused severe catalyst deactivation even at 5 wt%, concluded pre-treatment before FCC integration is essential, and reports phenolic compounds as the most refractory oxygenates, accumulating in the product slate, a limitation PySAF's conditioning step is designed to address upstream. Installed base: Hydrocarbon Processing and IEA FCCU databases (~400+ is the conservative, widely cited figure; reported ranges run 340+ to 430+ active units). Throughput: ~6 kbpd at a 10 wt% blend equals roughly 0.3–0.4 Mt/y of renewable carbon per unit. European count: regional refining and FCC market analyses for EU/UK/Norway. PySAF has not yet run FCC co-processing trials on PyXCrude itself. The 10–15 wt% window is a target derived from published results on comparable conditioned biocrudes; qualification trials with refining partners are the purpose of the current programme.

Offtake routes

One feed, three insertion points.

Route A

FCC co-processing

Biogenic carbon into refining's largest conversion base. No new-build capex for the refiner.

Renewable gasoline & distillate
Route B

Hydroprocessing & HEFA

A low-metals, low-water feed for hydrotreating routes to SAF.

Sustainable aviation fuel
Route C

Marine & bio-intermediates

A defined co-product stream for marine fuels, bio-hydrogen and bio-based chemicals.

PyXSugra stream