Natural Gas to Liquids, Sundrop Fuels / EERC -- September 19, 2012

Updates

November 27, 2016: from the company's webpage --

When completed, a single Sundrop Fuels biorefinery will efficiently produce more than 200 million gallons of transportation fuel annually. We will replicate biorefinery units in targeted areas, creating a capability of producing more than a billion gallons annually by 2025 – more than five percent of the nation’s goal to produce 22 billion gallons of advanced renewable fuels by this point.

Sundrop Fuels has completed a successful progression of scale-up activities. These include laboratory-scale demonstrations, a pilot plant facility that was operational from 2009 to 2011, and a process demonstration facility now in operation at North Dakota’s Energy and Environmental Research Center.  See this page.

The company’s next commercial biorefinery fuels plant is current in engineering design stage and planned for completion by 2020.  The production facility will produce more than 200 million gallons of fuel per year.

September 20, 2012: OGJ alludes to other GTL projects under study. There are two mentioned at this link provided by "anon 1."

South African energy and chemicals group Sasol has pulled the trigger on another North American gas-to-liquids (GTL) feasibility study – this time for a two-million to four-million-ton-a-year (48 000 bl/d to 96 000 bl/d) facility in the US state of Louisiana. The JSE-listed group is already studying the development of a GTL facility for either Alberta or British Columbia, in Canada, where it and its partner Talisman Energy hope to convert shale gas produced at their Farrel Creek joint venture, in the Montney basin, of British Columbia. The Canada GTL feasibility study began six months ago. 

From another story, same project:

The South African company has selected Calcasieu Parish as the location for a potential gas-to-liquids (GTL) complex that would entail a capital investment of approximately $8-10 billion and produce direct employment of approximately 850 jobs with average salaries of about $89,000, not including benefits.

To put the $10 billion in perspective, ONEOK is investing about $4 billion in natural gas gathering and processing plants and pipeline in the Bakken. (The $4 billion is a "wag" but it's probably in the ballpark.)

Speaking of Louisiana, here's another project the state can brag about: a "green" gasoline "production facility, the first in the nation.

Sundrop Fuels, Inc., a drop-in advanced biofuels company, today announced a partnership with technology and engineering supplier ThyssenKrupp Uhde for what will be the nation’s first bona fide commercial “green gasoline” production facility. The company’s inaugural plant near Alexandria, Louisiana, will yield up to 50 million gallons of renewable gasoline annually while also serving as proving ground for Sundrop Fuels’ proprietary biomass conversion technologies that will be used for future large-scale facilities.

Original Post

Before delving into this article, if you are unfamiliar with "gas to liquid" technology, link to wiki. South Africa and the Dutch have the technology (SASOL and Shell).

Gas to liquids (GTL) is a refinery process to convert natural gas or other gaseous hydrocarbons into longer-chain hydrocarbons such as gasoline or diesel fuel. Methane-rich gases are converted into liquid synthetic fuels either via direct conversion or via syngas as an intermediate, for example using the Fischer Tropsch or Mobil processes. 

Two companies, SASOL and Royal Dutch Shell, have technology proven to work on a commercial scale. PetroSA completed semi-commercial demonstrations of gas-to-liquids used by the company in 2011. 

Using gas-to-liquids processes, refineries can convert some of their gaseous waste products (flare gas) into valuable fuel oils, which can be sold as is or blended only with diesel fuel. It may also be used for the economic extraction of gas deposits in locations where it is not economical to build a pipeline. This process will be increasingly significant as crude oil resources are depleted.  

Royal Dutch Shell produces a diesel from natural gas in a factory in Bintulu, Malaysia. Another Shell GTL facility is the Pearl GTL plant in Qatar, the world's largest GTL facility and there are reports that Shell is looking at the feasibility of a GTL facility in Louisiana, US. 

I'm not sure if the above link is directly related to the story below, but I'm sure I will find out.

Now, for this most interesting little story over at the Oil and Gas Journal.

Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP, Indianapolis, earlier this month said it is considering adding a 1,000-b/d gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant to its Karns City, PA, specialty products plant. 

This would be the first GTL installation in North America, so far as OGJ can determine; a few larger projects are under study and planning. [See updates above.]

Plant design is to be completed by late this year, followed by site engineering and a decision to begin building in first-half 2013. Production could begin in second-half 2014. Calumet has commissioned Pasadena, Tex.-based Ventech Engineers International LLC to design and deliver the GTL plant that will use an “autothermal reformer” from Haldor Topsoe Inc. and Fischer-Tropsch technology fromVelocys Inc.

Go to the link for additional background information. This could end up being a big story for any number of reasons. Time will tell.

When you go to the linked OGJ article, note some of the uses for this technology.