Gas-to-gasoline

The MTG process was developed for synfuel production in response to the 1973 oil crisis and the steep rise in crude prices that followed. Because methanol can be made from any gasiftable carbonaceous source, including coal, natural gas, and biomass, the MTG process provided a new alternative to petroleum for Hquid fuels production. New Zealand, heavily dependent on foreign oil imports, utilizes the MTG process to convert vast offshore reserves of natural gas to gasoline (59). 

Fig. 6. Simplified block flow diagram for the New Zealand gas-to-gasoline (GTG) plant (61). To convert m /h to gal/min, multiply by 4.40. HGT = heavy...

Fig. 10. Simplified flow diagram depicting the ARCO gas-to-gasoline process for a conceptual gasoline production plant (72).

Sofranko, J. A. (1988). Gas to Gasoline The Arco GTG Process. Bicentennial Catalyst Meeting, Sydney, Australia. Tussing, A. R., and Tippee, B. (1995). The Natural Gas Industry Evolution, Structure, and Economics, 2nd ed. Tulsa, OK PennWell Publishing. 

GTG [gas to gasoline] A process for converting natural gas to gasoline by oxidative coupling. Ethylene, formed initially, is oligomerized to a gasoline-like distillate over a zeolite catalyst. Under development by the Arco Chemical Company in 1988. 

IFP Oxypyrolysis Also called NGOP. A process for converting natural gas to gasoline, based on the oxidative coupling of methane to ethane in a fixed-bed reactor. Developed in 1991 by the Institut Frangais du Petrole. 

TIGAS [Topsoe integrated gasoline synthesis] A multi-stage process for converting natural gas to gasoline. Developed by Haldor Topsoe and piloted in Houston from 1984 to 1987. Not commercialized, but used in 1995 as the basis for a process for making dimethyl ether for use as a diesel fuel. 

Chang, C.D. (1992) The New Zealand gas-to-gasoline plant an engineering tour de force. Catal. Today, 13, 103. 

Catalyst Poisons. Synthesis gas prepared by the partial combustion of sweet natural gas can be charged to the reactors directly without purification. However, synthesis gas containing more than 0.1 grain of sulfur per 100 cubic feet must be purified before use over fluidized iron catalysts. Other catalyst poisons are known, such as chlorine (14), but they are not likely to be encountered in the natural gas to gasoline process. 

Two versions of the MTG process, one using a fixed bed, the other a fluid bed, have been developed. The fixed-bed process was selected for installation in the New Zealand gas-to-gasoline (GTG) complex, situated on the North Island between the villages of Waitara and Motonui on the Tasman seacoast (60). A simplified block flow diagram of the complex is shown in Figure 6 (61). The plant processes over 3.7 x 106 m3/d(130 x 106 SCF/d) of gas from the offshore Maui field supplemented by gas from the Kapuni field, first to methanol, and thence to 2.3 x 103 m3/d (14,500 bbl/d) of gasoline. Methanol feed to the MTG section is synthesized using the ICI low pressure process (62) in two trains, each with a capacity of 2200 t/d. 

J. A. Sofranko, "Gas to Gasoline The ARCO GTG Process," paper presented at bicentenary Catalysis Meeting, Sydney, Australia, Sept. 1988. 

Hydrocarbon Research Inc., elected partial oxidation for the Carthage Hydrocol plant at Brownsville. After initial experiments that Hydrocarbon Research conducted at Olean, New York, The Texas Company assumed responsibility for further development of partial oxidation at its Montebello, California, laboratory, under duBois ( Dubie ) Eastman. For conversion of natural gas to gasoline by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, partial oxidation s advantage over steam-methane reforming lay in its ability to operate at a pressure approximating that of the synthesis, thereby essentially eliminating need for compression of synthesis gas. 

Oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) is a useful way to produce ethylene which can be turned to gasoline through the oligomerization. This is one of the future processes which convert natural gas to gasoline. 

The Synfuel gas-to-gasoline complex is sited within 180 hectares of land at Motunui, Taranaki. It is designed to convert 52-55 PJ per annum of natural gas into 570,000 tonnes (14,450 barrels per stream day) of high octane gasoline. 

The conversion of gas to gasoline (GTG) takes place in two stages first gas to methanol (G7M) and second methanol to gasoline (MTG). The two stages are integrated into a single complex to achieve optimum efficiency in management and operation. 

In response to a request from the New Zealand Government, Mobil Research and Development Corporation built a four barrels per day fixed-bed pilot plant to demonstrate the feasibility of the gas-to-gasoline process. This was a major scale-up of the laboratory woik and the pilot plant performed precisely as predicted. Reports to the LFTB by Lurgi and Badger also indicated confidence that the process would scale successfully from the pilot plant to... 

This morning I m going to tell you about fifty years of catalysis research at Mobil that started with the commercialization of the first Houdry catalytic cracker in 1936 at our Paulsboro, New Jersey refinery, and culminated with the dedication of the Motunui gas-to-gasoline plant on February 27, 1986. 

We re very proud to see the New Zealand gas-to-gasoline complex running. The New Zealand and German experience will provide proven technology against the time when synfuels are needed in other parts of the world. 

Allum, KsG, and D.M. Turnbull, Start-Up of the World s First Gas-to-Gasoline Plant, presented at ACS State-of-the-Art Symposium on Methanol as a Raw Material for Fuels and Chemicals, Marco Island, Florida, June 15-18, 1986. 

A new low investment process for the conversion of natural gas to gasoline is presented. The process incorporates the MTG process into a combined MeOH and dimethylether synthesis. The conversion of synthesis gas to gasoline is carried out in one single synthesis loop. The process has been demonstrated in a 1 MTPD gasoline process demonstration unit. 

The aim of the process development work on the integrated gasoline synthesis has been to arrive at a process scheme in which all three steps of the conversion of natural gas to gasoline are conducted at the same pressure level. This means that operating conditions and catalysts should be modified so that the low pressure processes can operate at relatively high pressure, and efforts should be made to reduce the necessary operating pressure of the MeOH synthesis. 

The New Zealand Gas to Gasoline project illustrates the effort required to translate research and laboratory data to a plant of concrete and steel. 

The Gas to Gasoline plant in New Zealand is the first commercial facility built to convert natural gas to gasoline. It is a strategically and economically significant plant supplying approximately one third of the total transportation fuel demand in New Zealand. 

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