MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Milestone gas to diesel technology developed in South Africa

A gas to liquids technology has been successfully developed by Norway and South Africa's oil companies was announced Wednesday by the GTL F1 consortium.

The milestone gas to liquid discovery demonstrates that it is "a technically viable and commercial alternative to produce hydrocarbons fuels with the potential to reduce the world's dependability on crude oil".

Gas to liquid is a process which entails converting the natural gas at high temperature and pressure with steam and oxygen to yield a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

The mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen is called synthesis gas, (syngas) which is then catalytically transformed in a Fischer Tropsch reactor to a variety of hydrocarbons, which in turn can be cracked on hydro-isomerised to diesel and other lighter hydrocarbons.

Of great environmental significance is the fact that the products from the process do not contain aromatic contents or sulphur. According to the GTL F1 release the diesel obtained has a higher cetane number with the absence of sulphur, unburned hydrocarbons and particulate (soot) and nitrogen emissions.

"The significance of a higher cetane number is that the GTL derived diesel burns cooler and the absence of sulphur and aromatics make a cleaner burning fuel with reduced environmental pollutants".

The gas to liquid is a process used to monetise large natural gas reserves.

GTL F1 is a consortium founded in 2005 in Zurich made up of Norway Statoil, South Africa's PetroSA and Lurgi technologies, operator of the company.

GTL F1 Managing Director Matthias Wagner said that the reactor performance and catalyst selectivity exceeded "our own targets while the composition of light, heavy oil and wax products met the high standards".

"Reaching this milestone confirms and supports the design and engineering of commercial scale plants currently being studied", he added.

Statoil vicepresident Roger Johansen described the technology as a "very important discovery".

The experiment took place last July in a PetroSA refinery in the Bay of Mossel, South Africa.