Meneja Wa Makampuni
JF-Expert Member
- Jul 7, 2020
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Our gas-to-liquids technology turns natural gas into high-quality liquid fuels, base oils for lubricants, and other liquid products usually made from oil. It is founded on more than 45 years of research, development and commercial experience.
What is gas-to-liquids?
Shell’s gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology converts natural gas – the cleanest-burning fossil fuel – into high-quality liquid products that would otherwise be made from crude oil. These products include transport fuels, motor oils and the ingredients for everyday necessities like plastics, detergents and cosmetics.
GTL products are colourless and odourless. They contain almost none of the impurities – sulphur, aromatics and nitrogen – that are found in crude oil.
GTL production can help countries with natural gas resources grow their economies as new gas supplies come on-stream to satisfy growing global demand for liquid products.
World’s first and biggest GTL plants
Shell began developing GTL technology in the 1970s. We opened the world’s first commercial GTL plant, Shell MDS, in Bintulu, Malaysia in 1993 and the world’s largest GTL plant, Pearl GTL, in Qatar in 2011.
Our Bintulu plant in Malaysia celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2018, highlighting the potential longevity of such an investment. Out of its 435 staff, 89% are from the local Sarawak region and 98% are Malaysian.
At the heart of our GTL plants is our proprietary Shell GTL technology. We have invested more than $1 billion and filed over 3,500 patents in developing the gas-to-liquids process.
We continuously improve our GTL technology by enhancing our designs, refining our processes and adding new GTL products. Responding to demand for smaller GTL facilities, we have developed a concept that allows considerable flexibility in production capacity. In 2014, we signed an agreement to conduct a feasibility study for a GTL plant in Mozambique.
GAS-TO-LIQUIDS
Our gas-to-liquids technology turns natural gas into high-quality liquid fuels, base oils for lubricants, and other liquid products usually made from oil. It is founded on more than 45 years of research, development and commercial experience.
What is gas-to-liquids?
Shell’s gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology converts natural gas – the cleanest-burning fossil fuel – into high-quality liquid products that would otherwise be made from crude oil. These products include transport fuels, motor oils and the ingredients for everyday necessities like plastics, detergents and cosmetics.
GTL products are colourless and odourless. They contain almost none of the impurities – sulphur, aromatics and nitrogen – that are found in crude oil.
GTL production can help countries with natural gas resources grow their economies as new gas supplies come on-stream to satisfy growing global demand for liquid products.
Employees at the Pearl GTL plant World’s first and biggest GTL plants
Shell began developing GTL technology in the 1970s. We opened the world’s first commercial GTL plant, Shell MDS, in Bintulu, Malaysia in 1993 and the world’s largest GTL plant, Pearl GTL, in Qatar in 2011.
Our Bintulu plant in Malaysia celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2018, highlighting the potential longevity of such an investment. Out of its 435 staff, 89% are from the local Sarawak region and 98% are Malaysian.
At the heart of our GTL plants is our proprietary Shell GTL technology. We have invested more than $1 billion and filed over 3,500 patents in developing the gas-to-liquids process.
We continuously improve our GTL technology by enhancing our designs, refining our processes and adding new GTL products. Responding to demand for smaller GTL facilities, we have developed a concept that allows considerable flexibility in production capacity. In 2014, we signed an agreement to conduct a feasibility study for a GTL plant in Mozambique.
Find out more about Pearl GTL Find out more about Shell MDS
How the GTL production process works
The GTL process consists of three stages:
In the first stage synthesis gas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, is manufactured from natural gas by partial oxidation. Impurities are removed from the syngas.
A second stage converts the synthesis gas into liquid hydrocarbons using a catalyst. In this stage, a liquid is formed which looks and feels like wax at room temperature.
The final stage is cracking and isomerisation, which “tailors” the molecule chains into products with desired properties. This yields high-quality liquids such as diesel, kerosene and lubricant oil.
HOW GTL TECHNOLOGY WORKS
Catalysts speed up chemical reactions
Advanced cobalt-based synthesis catalysts developed by Shell Catalysts & Technologies are crucial for efficient, large-scale conversion of natural gas to liquid fuels and other products. Each catalyst is as small as a grain of rice, and just 150 grams of them have the surface area of a football field.
Huge volumes of gas are exposed to the catalysts’ chemically treated surface, which maximises the rate of chemical GTL-reactions. The vast surface area is the result of the catalysts' many nano-sized inner channels, which make them highly porous.
Every few years, the cobalt inside used catalysts is reclaimed to make new ones.
GTL PRODUCTS
GTL Fuels
Shell GTL Fuel is an alternative fuel for use in diesel engines, which can lower local emissions (e.g. particulate matter, NOx, hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide).
It can be used in existing heavy-duty diesel vehicles without modifications, allowing for easy switchover from diesel fuel with no infrastructure investment required.[1] Shell GTL Fuel is already in daily use with commercial fleets in Germany and the Netherlands.
Shell GTL Fuel has broadly similar physical characteristics to crude diesel derived from crude oil, but it has a much higher cetane number, a higher mass calorific value, lower levels of sulphur and aromatics, and a lower density.
