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Natural Gas to Gasoline [MIT Review]
MIT Technology Review ^ | August 15, 2008 | Tyler Hamilton

Posted on 08/27/2013 10:30:44 AM PDT by topher

A Texas company says that it has developed a cheaper and cleaner way to convert natural gas into gasoline and other liquid fuels, making it economical to tap natural-gas reserves that in the past have been too small or remote to develop.

The company behind the technology, Dallas-based Synfuels International, says that the process uses fewer steps and is far more efficient than more established techniques based on the Fischer-Tropsch process. This process converts natural gas into syngas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide; a catalyst then causes the carbon and hydrogen to reconnect in new compounds, such as alcohols and fuels. Nazi Germany used the Fischer-Tropsch process to convert coal and coal-bed methane into diesel during World War II.

A Synfuels gas-to-liquids (GTL) refinery goes through several steps to convert natural gas into gasoline but claims to do so with better overall efficiency. First, natural gas is broken down, or “cracked,” under high temperatures into acetylene, a simpler hydrocarbon. A separate liquid-phase step involving a proprietary catalyst then converts 98 percent of the acetylene into ethylene, a more complex hydrocarbon. This ethylene can then easily be converted into a number of fuel products, including high-octane gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. And the end product is free of sulfur.

“We’re able to produce a barrel of gasoline for much cheaper than Fischer-Tropsch can,” says Kenneth Hall, coinventor of the process and former head of Texas A&M University’s department of chemical engineering. Hall says that a Fischer-Tropsch plant is lucky to produce a barrel of gasoline for $35 but that a much smaller Synfuels refinery could produce the same barrel for $25. Under current fuel prices, such a plant could pay for itself in as little as four years, the company says.

(Excerpt) Read more at technologyreview.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; US: California; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: energy; fischertropsch; gasoline; gtl; naturalgas
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To: American Constitutionalist
May I guess ? the big reason ? regulations ? or the process ?

In the US, the regulations are going to make the economics harder. But they have a business partnership with a Kuwait company trying to sell the license internationally. I still would bet on real economic cost as the reason.

41 posted on 08/27/2013 11:39:21 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: reg45

That was a US average for the industry. Individual plants can be designed to move that around a lot, but 5~10% growth is about all you get unless you ignore economics and keep cracking until it is all methane.


42 posted on 08/27/2013 11:40:46 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: thackney

Did you factor in all of the EPA permits they had to obtain just to build the test plant?

I admire the scientists and engineers that solve these problems, however the only problem they have yet to solve is how to get Uncle Sam out of their way and back pockets so their solutions can become reality for the rest of us...

This is why we will never see any of these refineries constructed. To paraphrase Obama, they can have them but it will just be so expensive that they cannot afford to build them.


43 posted on 08/27/2013 11:42:44 AM PDT by shotgun
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To: thackney

So basically about 20 gallons of that crude is able to produce regular gasoline ? and to top that off to make it more costly they add in there some kind of blends therefore use up more crude ?


44 posted on 08/27/2013 11:43:17 AM PDT by American Constitutionalist
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To: shotgun

They are trying to sell internationally as well. They are not limited by the EPA outside the US. A Kuwait company has a business relationship with them, although they have not planned to build one themselves. Kuwait already has GTL commercial operations with other technology.


45 posted on 08/27/2013 11:45:02 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: thackney

What a pity.


46 posted on 08/27/2013 11:46:05 AM PDT by American Constitutionalist
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To: American Constitutionalist
So basically about 20 gallons of that crude is able to produce regular gasoline ?

Yes, but the rest isn't waste. The other products have value as well.

and to top that off to make it more costly they add in there some kind of blends therefore use up more crude ?

Don't think of it as first making gasoline then using more energy to change that. It is more a case of making a variety of gasoline blending components to start with, then mixing the ingredients in the proportions to match different requirements.

47 posted on 08/27/2013 11:47:57 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: thackney
" Yes, but the rest isn't waste. The other products have value as well. "

Yup, I am aware of that.
Other fuels, petrol chemicals, plastics, heating fuels, jet fuels, and so many other products.
So that's helping American production with the new oil boom is the cost of some of those production plants running on natural gas for electricity, and ? the raw materials from petroleum.

48 posted on 08/27/2013 11:51:56 AM PDT by American Constitutionalist
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To: thackney
" Don't think of it as first making gasoline then using more energy to change that. It is more a case of making a variety of gasoline blending components to start with, then mixing the ingredients in the proportions to match different requirements. "
I call it pisswater blends that damage engines if the engines were not designed to run on it.
49 posted on 08/27/2013 11:53:55 AM PDT by American Constitutionalist
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To: American Constitutionalist

I believe there has been more growth in petrochem related to increased natural gas production than in the increased oil production.

The increase in natural gas has lead to an increase in natural gas liquids like ethane, propane and the like. Several new chemical plants are being built to take advantage of the new supply.

U.S. Gas Plant Production of Natural Gas Liquids and Liquid Refinery Gases
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MNGFPUS2&f=M

While the oil production growth has plenty of new jobs related to that production, I do not see growth downstream of that. We are basically just replacing imported oil with domestic oil. We are not see much new growth in refining.

U.S. Refinery Net Input of Crude Oil
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=M_EPC0_YIY_NUS_2&f=M


50 posted on 08/27/2013 12:00:16 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: thackney
In other words it's displacing what we were importing with what we are able to get out of our own ground here in the US.
I don't know how much of a factor it's going to have in case Iran decides to block off the Straight of Hormuz.
51 posted on 08/27/2013 12:03:05 PM PDT by American Constitutionalist
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To: thackney

I know that the output of a refinery can be optimized to favor gasoline over diesel or diesel over gasoline.


52 posted on 08/27/2013 12:05:18 PM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class.)
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To: thackney

“I am not claiming it is a hoax, but I don’t believe they have a reliable economic solution.”

Sounds like the TDP process years ago. It seems to work, it is just not ecomomically viable.

http://www.mindfully.org/Energy/2004/Changing-World-Technologies4apr04.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changing_World_Technologies


53 posted on 08/27/2013 12:33:13 PM PDT by citizen (There is always free government cheese in the mouse trap.)
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To: topher

Supposedly the cost to make a barrel of gasoline was $25 for the Texas process. That would not include the cost of the natural gas, but in some oil producing fields, the “natural gas” is discarded as it is not feasible to build pipelines.
............
You can see pictures from space of the huge flare off of natural gas being done in Eagle Ford and the Baaken formation.


54 posted on 08/27/2013 12:50:55 PM PDT by ckilmer
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To: thackney
I believe there has been more growth in petrochem related to increased natural gas production than in the increased oil production.

The increase in natural gas has lead to an increase in natural gas liquids like ethane, propane and the like. Several new chemical plants are being built to take advantage of the new supply.


Agreed. Western PA and Eastern Ohio are ground zero with Hess, Sunoco, and Chevron positioning themselves in the area. Chevron is building their liquids headquarters near the airport in Pittsburgh. Sunoco has delayed their refinery-petrochem plant in Beaver Valley because of insufficient staffing and resources for another three years. Hess will be building in Ohio. There will be a lot of jobs "created" here.

My Daughter will be graduating in P&G Eng. in a little over a year. The companies are paying for internships and literally grabbing the students as they matriculate. Just have to prevent the government from once again snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
55 posted on 08/27/2013 3:56:06 PM PDT by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the Occupation Media.)
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To: PA Engineer

I saw where they are going to build a half billion dollar water pipeline up from the Ohio River to supply fracking if the govt will allow it.


56 posted on 08/27/2013 4:00:00 PM PDT by nascarnation (Democrats control the Presidency, Senate, and Media. It's an uphill climb....)
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To: reg45

Yes but that optimization is building equipment, not changing set points.


57 posted on 08/27/2013 4:32:39 PM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: nascarnation
I saw where they are going to build a half billion dollar water pipeline up from the Ohio River to supply fracking if the govt will allow it.

I missed that one. If you can find the link, I would be interested. I was wrong about Sunoco. Sun is looking at Beaver Valley.

Another interesting article of local interest:

Consol details plans for drilling at Pittsburgh International Airport

Here is a revealing tidbit from the article.

Joseph Zoka, general manager for central Pennsylvania operations with Consol's gas division, said once the company starts drilling it'll be able to assess if it makes sense to also drill Upper Devonian wells from the same pads during the development process. Those wells, several hundred feet above the Marcellus, also would be horizontal shale wells.
58 posted on 08/28/2013 7:27:37 PM PDT by PA Engineer (Liberate America from the Occupation Media.)
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