Jostein Sogge

Selecting optimum syngas technology and process design for large scale conversion of natural gas into Fischer-Tropsch products (GTL) and Methanol

Abstract Four different syngas technologies; Conventional Steam Reforming (CSR), Partial Oxidation (POX), Autothermal Reforming (ATR) and Gas Heated Reforming (GHR) have been evaluated for GTL (Fischer-Tropsch) production and compared to a new syngas concept (TGR). The conclusion is that the GHR based syngas route and the new TGR based concept proved to be both more energy efficient (30% lower CO 2 emissions) and have lower investments than the other alternatives. For methanol production, ATR based syngas production seems to be preferred above 5000 MTPD. However, continued development of steam reformers have increased the maximum capacity range for “Two Step Reforming”. A number of new “hybrid” flowsheets have been announced which combine GHR, CSR, and ATR. These flowsheets seem to have a potential for competing with ATR based syngas concepts even up to 10,000 MTPD.