Tunaomba ushahidi/andiko linayo dhibitisha biashara ya conversion of Methane to gasoline inalipa. Speak now or forever hold your peace.
Sina haja ya kukupa andiko za kupublish kwenye hayo majournal maana zingine zinapikwa, chuku hii.
Advances in Gas-to-Liquids Technology at Shell
Introduction
Shell researchers have been studying the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reaction for more than 40 years. This contributed to commercial Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) plants in Malaysia and Qatar and ongoing developments for new GTL prospects at various locations. Shell Middle Distillate Synthesis (Shell MDS) in Bintulu, Malaysia, started up in 1993 with a current capacity of 14,700 bbl/d synthetic products. Pearl GTL is situated in Ras-Laffan, Qatar, and started up in 2011. It is the largest GTL plant in the world with a production capacity of 140,000 bbl/d synthetic products. In Shell, research to further improve the economical and technical aspects of the GTL process has been a continuous activity. This has resulted in improved technology for each of the main process steps. In this talk FT related developments will be discussed first. In both Shell MDS Bintulu and Pearl GTL, multi-tubular fixed bed technology is used for the Heavy Paraffin Synthesis (HPS). This technology has proven scale-up benefits and several other differentiating features compared to other reactor types such as slurry reactors. Second main topic will be improvements made in the Heavy Paraffin Conversion (HPC) technology. Afterwards the product slate of the Shell GTL process will be discussed in conjunction with the technology. Finally, an update will be given on the implications of these and other improvements on new GTL plant designs.
GTL products developments
Shell’s FT synthesis process results in very clean paraffinic hydrocarbons. The unique nature of the molecules makes them very suitable in specialty applications. The very heavy wax produced by the HPS allows the conversion into lubricant baseoils with superior properties compared to oil derived baseoils available in the market. Shell baseoils are used in premium lubricants and enable improved fuel economy during driving. In the lecture a comparison will be made with different baseoil types and the basis of the enhanced performance will be discussed.
Scalable GTL design for new prospects
With the Shell MDS and the Pearl GTL projects, Shell has proven GTL on 15 and 140 kbpd scale. This experience enables the selection of a scale (hence: “Scalable GTL”) that gives the optimum balance of economy of scale versus project complexity and resource requirements. The Scalable GTL design It is based on the latest technology improvements in various areas (gasification, HPS, HPC) and has an optimized cost based on competitive scoping, supply chain transformation & efficient execution. In the lecture the interaction between technology steps and the resulting design will be highlighted.