Mark A. Agee

Economic Gas to Liquids: A New Tool for the Energy Industry

Recent technological advances within the energy industry have made dramatic improvements in lowering the cost of finding, producing and refining oil. As wonderful as these advances have been, the industry has left behind a vast storehouse of energy in the form of remote and substandard gas reserves. These stranded reserves are largely unmarketable because of the prohibitive costs of transportation to market. And they account for between half and two-thirds of all known gas in the world. By some estimates, as much as 900 trillion cubic feet of gas (25 trillion cubic meters) are beyond the economic reach of commercial markets as gas or LNG. 1 Frequently they also trap underlying oil reserves. With this perspective, consider the litany of problems currently facing the energy industry: environmental mandates for cleaner fuels; raw materials getting heavier and dirtier; process upgrading investments more difficult to justify; tightening supplies for middle distillates and naphtha; surging demand for clean fuels for power generation; trouble in financing LNG mega-projects; and, as noted above, most of the reserves of the cleanest fuel-natural gas-too remote for economic delivery to markets.

Gas to Liquids (GTL) Conversion: A New Option for Monetizing Natural Gas

A new process for converting natural gas into liquid fuels and other petroleum products is described, as is the increased market opportunity this technology portends for gas turbine manufacturers. The GTL technology, developed by Syntroleum Corporation, utilizes Autothermal Reforming with air to produce a nitrogen-diluted synthesis gas having a near ideal ratio for converting into synthetic hydrocarbons via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. A proprietary catalyst system achieves conversion rates comparable to conventional F-T processes without the need for recycling. This results in plant capital costs low enough to make conversion of remote and/or sub-quality gas into synthetic fuels economical at current oil prices. The process is energy self-sufficient and compact enough to be constructed in small sizes for plants in remote areas, including floating or platform facilities to utilize offshore gas reserves. It can also be scaled up for 50,000 BPD or larger applications.Copyright