America First Refining awards CDU design for new refinery to Process Consulting Services

Process Consulting Services, Inc. (PCS) has been selected to provide crude and vacuum unit designs for the newly announced 168,000 bpd America First Refining (AFR) Project in Brownsville, Texas, the first grass-roots refinery built in the USA in over 50 years.

The hydrogen-powered facility will process light shale crude oil to produce some of the cleanest fuels in the United States.

"We are pleased to have been entrusted by AFR in the development of this important refinery and the advancement of US refining capacity," said PCS Vice President Tony Barletta. "PCS has been providing reliable, efficient, and market-leading designs globally for over 30 years," he added. 

Processing shale-derived (tight oil) crudes comes with a set of quirks and operational consequences that are quite different from conventional or more "well-behaved" crudes. In keeping with their mission statement and the operational sensitivities of tight oil refining, the PCS repository of expertise became well-versed in providing solutions to mitigate the impacts of processing challenging crudes. 

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Against this backdrop, the refining community came to know Houston-based PCS as first movers in establishing a solutions kit for dealing with the idiosyncrasies of upgrading shale-based crudes. Barletta emphasised, “We will leverage our vast experience to provide AFR with a world-class design."