Expander Energy’s FTCrude process, which involves the manufacturing of clean-burning synthetic fuels and the grading of heavy oil and bitumen, is now patented, according to a company release.

The process reduces CO2 emissions by more than 50% in the production of heavy oil and bitumen, and production yield is increased to more than 130% compared to conventional coking yields of 82%, the company said.

During the process, the release said, carbon is turned into high-quality fuel instead of being stored as petcoke or released into the atmosphere as CO2 emissions. The FTCrude process manages and retains carbon within the system, eliminating low-value byproducts of petcoke and heavy oil residuals. An additional byproduct is industrial-grade-process water.