GAS TO LIQUIDS TECHNOLOGY: A FUTURISTIC VIEW
* EL SHAMY, A.A; ** Zayed, A.M
** Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, Opr. Development Depart., P.O No. 11742.
* Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, Quality Control Department, P.O No. 11742.
Abstract :
Worldwide efforts aimed to the formulation of environment friendly
diesel fuels able to meet the advanced fuel specifications of the 21st century
and able to meet the global demand on diesel fuels. Synthetically derived gasto-
liquid (GTL) diesel fuel promises to meet these challenges and spearhead
the way to the future. This technology will produce almost zero sulfur, high
cetane, low aromatic diesel and naphtha which will be sold regionally and
internationally.
GTL fuel is cleaner than any conventional fuel which will help the
environment. It can be used in conventional diesel engines to give reductions
in emission levels. Construction of such technology will reduce the gap
between production and consumption by maximizing the gross profitability of
natural gas.
Gas to Liquid synthetic fuel
Producing synthetic fuel from natural gas or other carbon sources with
Fischer – Tropsch (FT) chemistry is not new. This technology is also referred
to as gas to liquids (GTL). The FT process converts 10,000 SCF of gas into
approximately 1 barrel of synthetic crude oil (1). The proven reserves of natural
gas are estimated to be 5,000 trillion barrels of syncrude. the typical GTL
process has three steps. The first step is converting natural gas to synthesis gas
(carbon monoxide and hydrogen) using oxygen/air. This conversion requires
expensive cryogenic separation of oxygen from air. In the second step, the
synthesis gas is converted to long – chain paraffinic waxes by FT chemistry. In
the final step, the waxes are selectively cracked to maximize the yields of
synthetic fuels. Current research is focusing on eliminating the need to use
pure oxygen and developing chain – limiting FT catalysts to avoid the hydro –
cracking step.