Gas to liquids

Gas to liquids (GTL) is a renery process to con- Steam reforming CH4 + H2 O CO + 3 H2 H =

vert natural gas or other gaseous hydrocarbons into +206 kJ mol1
longer-chain hydrocarbons such as gasoline or diesel fuel.
Methane-rich gases are converted into liquid synthetic fu- Water shift reaction CO + H2 O CO2 + H2 H =
els either via direct conversionusing non-catalytic pro- 41 kJ mol1
cesses that convert methane to methanol in one stepor
via syngas as an intermediate, such as in the Fischer Trop- Synthesis 2 H2 + CO CH3 OH H = 92 kJ mol
1

sch, Mobil and syngas to gasoline plus processes.

1 FischerTropsch process
Main article: FischerTropsch process
The FischerTropsch process starts with partial oxida-
The methanol thus formed may be converted to gasoline
by the Mobil process.
3 Methanol to gasoline process
(MTG)
In the early 1970s, Mobil developed an alternative pro-
cedure in which natural gas is converted to syngas, and
then methanol. The methanol polymerized over a zeolite
catalyst to form alkanes.
First methanol is dehydrated to give dimethyl ether:

2 CH3 OH CH3 OCH3 + H2 O

This is then further dehydrated over a zeolite catalyst such

as ZSM-5, which would theoretically yield ethylene:

CH3 OCH3 C2 H4 + H2 O

but which in practice is polymerized and hydrogenated to

give a gasoline with hydrocarbons of ve or more carbon
GTL process using the Fischer Tropsch method atoms making up 80% of the fuel by weight.

tion of methane (natural gas) to carbon dioxide, carbon

monoxide, hydrogen gas and water. The ratio of carbon 4 Syngas to gasoline plus process
monoxide to hydrogen is adjusted using the water gas
shift reaction, while the excess carbon dioxide is removed (STG+)
with aqueous solutions of alkanolamines (or physical sol-
vents). Removing the water yields synthesis gas (syngas) Main article: Syngas to gasoline plus
which is chemically reacted over an iron or cobalt cata- A third gas-to-liquids process builds on the MTG tech-
lyst to produce liquid hydrocarbons and other byproducts. nology by converting natural gas-derived syngas directly
Oxygen is provided from a cryogenic air separation unit. into drop-in gasoline and jet fuel via a thermochemical
single-loop process.[1]
The STG+ process follows four principal steps in one con-
2 Methane to methanol process tinuous process loop. This process consists of four xed
bed reactors in series in which a syngas is converted to
Methanol is made from methane (natural gas) in a series synthetic fuels. The steps for producing high-octane syn-
of three reactions: thetic gasoline are as follows:[2]

1
2 5
The STG+ Process
1. Methanol Synthesis: Syngas is fed to Reactor 1, the
rst of four reactors, which converts most of the syn-
gas (CO and H2) to methanol (CH3OH) when pass-
ing through the catalyst bed.
2. Dimethyl Ether (DME) Synthesis: The methanol-
rich gas from Reactor 1 is next fed to Reactor 2, the
second STG+ reactor. The methanol is exposed to a
catalyst and much of it is converted to DME, which
involves a dehydration from methanol to form DME
(CH3OCH3).
3. Gasoline synthesis: The Reactor 2 product gas is
next fed to Reactor 3, the third reactor containing
the catalyst for conversion of DME to hydrocar-
bons including parans (alkanes), aromatics, naph-
thenes (cycloalkanes) and small amounts of olens
(alkenes), mostly from C6 (number of carbon atoms
in the hydrocarbon molecule) to C10.
4. Gasoline Treatment: The fourth reactor provides
transalkylation and hydrogenation treatment to the
products coming from Reactor 3. The treatment
reduces durene (tetramethylbenzene)/isodurene and
trimethylbenzene components that have high freez-
ing points and must be minimized in gasoline. As a
result, the synthetic gasoline product has high octane
and desirable viscometric properties.
5. Separator: Finally, the mixture from Reactor 4 is
condensed to obtain gasoline. The non-condensed
gas and gasoline are separated in a conventional con-
denser/separator. Most of the non-condensed gas
from the product separator becomes recycled gas
and is sent back to the feed stream to Reactor 1,
leaving the synthetic gasoline product composed of
parans, aromatics and naphthenes.
5 Commercial uses
Using gas-to-liquids processes, reneries can convert
some of their gaseous waste products (are gas) into valu-
able fuel oils, which can be sold as is or blended only
with diesel fuel. The World Bank estimates that over
150 billion cubic metres (5.31012 cu ft) of natural gas
are ared or vented annually, an amount worth approx-
imately $30.6 billion, equivalent to 25% of the United
COMMERCIAL USES
States gas consumption or 30% of the European Unions
annual gas consumption,[3] a resource that could be use-
ful using GTL. Gas-to-liquids processes may also be used
for the economic extraction of gas deposits in locations
where it is not economical to build a pipeline. This pro-
cess will be increasingly signicant as crude oil resources
are depleted.
The use of microchannel reactors, such as those devel-
oped by Velocys, shows promise for the conversion of un-
conventional, remote and problem gas into valuable liquid
fuels. GTL plants based on microchannel reactors are sig-
nicantly smaller than those using conventional xed bed
or slurry bed reactors, enabling modular plants that can
be deployed cost eectively in remote locations and on
smaller elds than is possible with competing systems.[4]
Construction is underway for one such plant: ENVIA En-
ergys Oklahoma City GTL plant being built adjacent to
Waste Managements East Oak landll site. The project
is being nanced by a joint venture between Waste Man-
agement, NRG Energy, Ventech and Velocys. The feed-
stock for this plant will be a combination of landll gas
and pipeline natural gas. [5]
On August 1, 2014, Biofuels Power Corporation
(BFLS)signed a letter of intent with ThyssenKrupp In-
dustrial Solutions and Liberty GTL, Inc. to build
a small scale gas-to-liquid demonstration facility in
Houston,Texas.[6] The parties have established a non-
binding target date to complete installation and commis-
sioning of the GTL Pilot Plant on or before December
31, 2014. The purpose of the GTL Pilot Plant is to com-
mercially demonstrate converting stranded natural gas re-
sources to synthetic crude oil. BFLS will operate the GTL
Pilot Plant for the 2-year demonstration. ThyssenKrupp
will provide technical services and contribute a previously
operating auto-thermal reformer pilot plant of proven de-
sign (ATR), which will be used to generate synthesis
gas feedstock for the production of synthetic crude oil.
Liberty will provide intellectual property and operating
know-how regarding crude oil synthesis along with the
relevant catalyst supply. The Liberty technical team is
also credited for designing the FT (Fischer Tropsch) Re-
actor which will convert the synthetic gas to synthetic
crude oil. The GTL Pilot Plant will be assembled at the
Houston Clean Energy Park,[7] which is an industrial es-
tate owned by BFLS. The Houston site is located between
the Eagle Ford Natural Gas Field and numerous rener-
ies.
One other proposed solution is to use a novel FPSO for
oshore conversion of gas to liquids such as methanol,
diesel, petrol, synthetic crude, and naphtha.[8]
Two companies, SASOL and Royal Dutch Shell, have
technology proven to work on a commercial scale.
PetroSA completed semi-commercial demonstrations of
gas-to-liquids used by the company in 2011.[9] Royal
Dutch Shell produces a diesel from natural gas in a factory
in Bintulu, Malaysia. Another Shell GTL facility is the

Pearl GTL plant in Qatar, the worlds largest GTL facility
and there are reports that Shell is looking at the feasibil-
ity of a GTL facility in Louisiana, US.[10][11][12] SASOL
has recently built the Oryx GTL facility in Ras Laan
Industrial City, Qatar and together with Uzbekneftegaz
and Petronas builds the Uzbekistan GTL plant.[13][14][15]
Chevron Corporation, in a joint venture with the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation is commissioning the
Escravos GTL in Nigeria, which uses Sasol technology.
On 1 February 2008, an Airbus A380 ew a three-hour
test ight between Britain and France, with one of the
A380s four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines using a mix
of 60% standard jet kerosene and 40% gas to liquids fuel
supplied by Shell.[16] The aircraft engine needed no mod-
ication to use the GTL fuel, which was designed to be
mixed with normal jet fuel. The fuel used was no cleaner
in CO2 terms than standard fuel but it had local air quality
benets because the GTL portion contains no sulphur.[17]
On 12 October 2009, a Qatar Airways Airbus A340-600
conducted the worlds rst commercial passenger ight
using a mixture of kerosene and synthetic GTL fuel in its
ight from Londons Gatwick Airport to Doha.[18]
Brazilian oil company Petrobras has ordered two small
experimental GTL production facilities intended to be
posted at oshore oil elds too distant or deep to jus-
tify gas pipelines to onshore GTL plant.[19][20][21] In Jan-
uary 2012 Petrobras Cenpes Research and Development
Centre approved for commercial deployment the tech-
nology supplied by UK-based gas-to-liquids company
CompactGTL.[22] Petrobras has also completed its as-
sessment of technology supplied by Velocys.[19]
The STG+ technology is currently operating at pre-
commercial scale in Hillsborough, New Jersey at a plant [14] Malaysias Petronas in Uzbekistan oil-production deal.
owned by alternative fuels company Primus Green En-
ergy. The plant produces approximately 100,000 gallons [15] Contract let for GTL plant in Uzbekistan. Oil & Gas
of high-quality, drop-in gasoline per year directly from
natural gas.[23] Further, the company announced the nd-
ings of an independent engineers report prepared by E3
Consulting, which found that STG+ system and catalyst [16] Dunn, Graham (1 February 2008). Airbus conducts
performance exceeded expectations during plant opera-
tion. The pre-commercial demonstration plant has also
achieved 720 hours of continuous operation.[24]
6 See also
Biomass to liquid
Carbon-neutral fuel
Coal to liquid
7 References
[1] LaMonica, Martin. Natural Gas Tapped as Bridge to Bio-
fuels MIT Technology Review, 27 June 2012. Retrieved:
7 March 2013.
3
[2] Introduction to Primus STG+ Technology Primus Green
Energy, undated. Retrieved: 5 March 2013.
[3] World Bank, GGFR Partners Unlock Value of Wasted
Gas, World Bank 14 December 2009. Retrieved 17
March 2010.
[4] Roberts, Ken. Modular design of smaller-scale GTL
plants (PDF). Petroleum Technology Quarterly. Re-
trieved 2013.
[5] Neville Hargreaves. Setting the stage for the future of
smaller scale GTL. Gas Processing. Retrieved August
2015.
[6] http://www.biofuelspower.com/PressReleases/
August2014.pdf
[7] http://www.biofuelspower.com/Operations.html
[8] Innovative Engineering in Energy Technologies. Bpp-
Tech. Retrieved 2014-04-12.
[9] http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=
142267
[10] Pearl GTL - an overview.
[11] Pearl Gas-to-Liquids Plant, Ras Laan, Qatar. Re-
trieved 2009-06-22.
[12] Shell Weighs Natural Gas-to-Diesel Processing Facility
for Louisiana. Retrieved 2012-05-05.
[13] Petronas signs Uzbek GTL pact. Upstream Online
(NHST Media Group). 2009-04-08. (subscription re-
quired). Retrieved 2009-07-18.
Reuters. 2009-05-14. Retrieved 2009-07-18.
Journal (PennWell Corporation). 2010-03-08. (subscrip-
tion required). Retrieved 2010-03-14.
A380 alternative-fuel demonstration ight. Flight Inter-
national. Archived from the original on 2 February 2008.
Retrieved 1 February 2008.
[17] Lalor, Dan (1 February 2008). A380 makes test ight on
alternative fuel. Reuters. Retrieved 2 July 2011.
[18] uiui Qatar Airways Makes GTL History. Downstream
Today. 2009-10-15. Retrieved 2009-10-17.
[19] Fairley, Peter. Turning Gas Flares into Fuel MIT Technol-
ogy Review, 15 March 2010. Retrieved: 17 March 2010.
[20] Think small for associated Gas EngineerLive.com, un-
dated. Retrieved: 17 March 2010.
[21] Petrobras pilot plant CompactGTL, undated. Retrieved:
24 July 2012.
[22] Petrobras puts gas ares out of fashion with GTL Up-
stream, 20 January 2012. Retrieved: 24 July 2012.
4 8 EXTERNAL LINKS

[23] Primus Green Energy Demonstration Plant Operat-

ing Results Conrm Compelling Performance and Eco-
nomics According to Independent Engineers Report.
Primusge.com. 2013-11-07. Retrieved 2014-04-12.

[24] Technologies. E3co.com. Retrieved 2014-04-12.

8 External links
Airbus conducts A380 alternative-fuel demonstra-
tion ight

Dutch Government site on Royal TESO GTL

project

University of California San Diego webpage

The production of methanol and gasoline
 5

9 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.1 Text
Gas to liquids Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_to_liquids?oldid=694223403 Contributors: Europrobe, Heron, Stevertigo, Mac,
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