Toward an Economic Model for Gas-to-Liquid Fuels?

By Michael Kanellos

Gas-to-liquid (GTL) fuels have been under development by Shell (RDS.A) and ExxonMobil (XOM) in Qatar for a number of years. The high expense, however, has made it a difficult sell for the car and truck industry.

This week, Qatar Airways flew an Airbus 340-800 jet from London to Doha on a 50-50 blend of kerosene and GTL from Royal Dutch Shell, according to Reuters. The fuel mix cuts down on particulates and sulfur dioxide. Airbus has said that 30% of jet fuel may have to come from clean alternatives by 2030, and planes will inevitably continue to run on liquid fuel. The nuclear plane and the battery-powered plane aren't likely alternatives.

You can drink GTL, too. I kid you not.

If development continues, it could be a good news story all around. GTL is not liquefied natural gas, the stuff carried in tanker ships. In those ships, natural gas gets turned into a liquid through low temperatures and then turned back into a gas when it hits home port. GTL involves cracking methane and converting it into a liquid fuel that stays a liquid at ambient temperatures. The process is similar to the coal-to-liquid process devised by Fischer and Tropsch in the 1920s.

The coal-to-liquid process released a number of greenhouse gases and is expensive. That's why it was only popular with countries like Apartheid-era South Africa and Third Reich Germany facing trade restrictions. GTL is far cleaner, but it is still expensive. The gas for GTL generally comes from stranded natural gas deposits that are stranded (i.e. not on pipelines that would make extraction easy).

Earlier, Continental (CAL) flew a plane partly on algae oil, but the algae constituted a very small percentage – like close to 1% – of the fuel consumed.

So with GTL you get a solution to the jet emissions issue and perhaps an economically viable option for GTL. We shall see.

Comments

[jack kreg:]

this is excellent news, although, the coal to liquid fuel process should also be pursued, much of the global warming science if failing to predict the last 10 years of stable if not cooling global temperature, hence the hysteria against production of CO2, will soon subside, not to mention the global economy is in no shape to afford, massive carbon taxation, and the concurrent un-employment.
Overall, good news, but then what else would you expect from one of the worlds best company's.

Oct 13 01:47 PM

[bindlepete:]

This is a pretty big distortion in that Methane (Ch4) is very easy to turn to a liquid as Methanol (Ch3Oh) by simply partial oxidation with air. Now this is not what jet engine manufacturers prefer but it works well with 15% gasoline in spark ignited engines as M-85.

The gasoline component provides cold starting and lubricity for the injectors.

The Indianapolis cars have been running on methanol since the late 30's as it has a natural octane of about 110 and because of the low flame temperature does not push out NOX's

Oct 13 04:07 PM

[Steven Ward:]

The US has to become transportation fuel independent. The money kept inside the country will currently deny the OPEC Cartel of about
$250 to $300 billion a year.

But the Obama Admin. does not seem to agree, rather focusing on green generating power instead.
Obama views all of natural gas as a transition fuel. With no transition dollars to help it along.
We are at the point where we shoulsd spit on a spark plug if it will work.

Oct 14 09:37 AM

[Petey Parker:]

You need to do some fact checking before you publish an article. ExxonMobil is not pursuing a GTL plant in Qatar.

Oct 14 10:46 AM

[CaptainJJack:]

George Olah, who won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry, has written a book on the Methanol economy. He has a number of practical ideas about our energy future.

His ultimate proposed transportation fuel is methanol that comes from getting hydrogen by cracking H2O using very high temperatures, then combing the hydrogen produced with CO2 to form methanol, CH3OH.

Olah proposes this as an alternative to hydrogen as a transportation fuel. Methanol is FAR easier to transport and store than hydrogen.

And even though the burning process releases CO2, when you consider the whole cycle, it is CO2 neutral, as long as the cracking is done in a nuclear power plant.

Oct 14 10:48 AM

[Gassy:]

After a lot of delays and cost over-runs Shell's GTL may actually start producing in 2011. XOM gave up GTL in Qatar a few years ago. The big attraction of GTL is that it produces a lot of clean diesel. But at the current diesel prices the economics struggle. This is after getting natural gas almost free at $0.7/mcf. But as we have nearly peaked non-OPEC production this may compete well with the most expensive oil sand project.

Oct 14 04:29 PM