Synthetic Diesel

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Synthetic Diesel
www.SyntheticDiesel.com

What is Synthetic Diesel?

Synthetic Diesel is a method of producing diesel fuel from natural gas. Synthetic diesel fuel, is NOT the same as B100 Biodiesel - Synthetic diesel is made by processing natural gas through a technology called the Fischer-Tropsch process, which converts the natural gas into Synthetic Diesel, a liquid - and used just like regular diesel fuel in any diesel fuel application.

Synthetic diesel provides numerous economic and environmental benefits over typical petroleum diesel. First of all, synthetic diesel is sulfur-free and free of other petroleum by-products that are found in petroleum diesel that has been refined from crude oil. This means that synthetic diesel is significantly cleaner, cleaner-burning, and can be formulated for superior cold weather performance and fuel system lubricity. Because synthetic diesel has fewer contaminates, it is lower in toxicity. As synthetic diesel has a high cetane rating, like octane for gasoline, it offers better performance over traditional petroleum diesel.

Some remote natural gas can now be economically converted through a GTL process into an ultra-clean fuel for diesel engines. At times this fuel can be economically blended with conventional petroleum diesel fuels to: extend California's diesel fuel supplies, and improve refinery capacity of cleaner diesel fuels.
An opportunity exists to use GTL fuels in California and reduce the emissions from old diesel vehicles especially school buses. One plant in South Africa (Mossgas) and Shell's Indonesia plant both produce GTL fuels suitable for use in heavy-duty diesel applications.
Discussions are underway to develop a GTL production facility in Alaska to produce 40,000 barrels per day (23% of our current demand) with a goal to produce 300,000 bbl/d. However, with existing technology, oil pipeline capacity and North Slope gas reserves over 1,000,000 bbl/d could be produced.
Building such a facility would extend the Trans Alaska Pipeline's economic life, which provides 50 percent of California's oil supply.
Natural gas, is four times more expensive to transport than oil.
Converting natural gas to a liquid through a Fischer-Tropsch technology provides an opportunity to expand the use of the natural gas and lower the transportation cost from remote sources of low-cost gas.
Fischer-Tropsch is a gas-to-liquid (GTL) process that can produce a high-quality diesel fuel from natural gas, coal and biomass resources. Shell refers to the GTL process as a middle distillate synthesis (MDS). In all cases the middle distillate produced from this process can be blended with today's diesel fuel.
GTL diesel has extremely low (0-5-ppm) sulfur, aromatics, and toxics. GTL fuel can be blended with non-complying CARB diesel fuel to make a cleaner diesel fuel complying with stringent diesel fuel standards.
California's current nearest GTL supplier is the Shell-Malaysia, Bintulu MSD plant. The plant, which began, operation in 1993, and was shutdown between December 25, 1997, and restarted on May 20, 2000, can produce up to 2400 barrels/day which is 1.5% of California's diesel demand.
From November 1993-December 1997 Shell's MSD plant sold over 1 million gallons of middle distillate to four California refiners, which was blended into roughly 4 million gallons of diesel fuel and sold to on-highway fuel consumers.
Synthetic diesel fuel offers a new opportunity to use alternative fuels in diesel engines without compromising fuel-efficiency, increasing capital outlay, and impacting infrastructure or refueling cost.
Further commercialization of this fuel improves the prospects of new engines meeting proposed national 2007 heavy-duty diesel engine emission standards. In the near-term, this fuel can play a role reducing existing diesel vehicles exhaust and toxic emissions.
Since the late-1990s nearly every major oil company including: ARCO, Chevron, Conoco, Exxon, Phillips, Mobile, Statoil, and Texaco announced plans to build pilot plants or commercial plants to produce synthetically derived diesel fuel through the improved GTL process.
Stringent diesel exhaust emission standards and fuel specifications are compelling the petroleum industry to revisit the new, improved GTL process to competitively produce aromatic and sulfur complying diesel fuel.
Key to the commercial success of the GTL process lies in increased reactor capacity proven in the mid-1990s. This new process uses a slurry-bed reactor that has 100 times the capacity per reactor over some 1990 reactors and offers lowers cost.
Synthetic diesel fuel appears to be the most economical fuel product from the GTL process, compared to producing gasoline. Preliminary testing of an unmodified diesel engine, fueled with neat synthetic diesel fuel, shows the following emission reductions compared to typical California diesel:¹
The GTL process needs low-cost natural gas, less than $1 per million BTUs, to compete with traditional diesel fuel. Some remote natural gas sources, called "stranded gas," that are not otherwise economically available may be ideally suited to this process, like Alaska.

GTL fuels produced from pipeline supplied natural gas would not be competitive due to the higher value of pipeline supplied natural gas.

NOTES * * * * * *

¹Southwest Research Institute, AIChe, Emissions Performance of Fischer-Tropsch Diesel Fuels, March 1997. Document Date: July 5, 2000

What is Synthetic Gas?

Synthesis gas, synthetic gas, or syngas, are the names given to gas of different (yet closely similar) to composition that are generated in coal gasification, coal liquefaction, gas liquefaction - also known as natural gas to liquids plants and other types of waste-to-energy facilities.

What is Natural Gas to Liquids or "Natural Gas Liquefaction"?

Natural Gas to Liquids is also referred to as "Natural Gas Liquefaction," which is the process in which natural gas is converted from the gaseous to the liquid phase. At the end of the Natural Gas Liquefaction process, the product is referred to as Liquefied Natural Gas" or "LNG."

More about Natural Gas To Liquids or "Gas Liquefaction"

A first-of-its-kind, natural gas-to-liquids or "gas liquefaction" facility was built in the U.S. that produces high-performance, sulfur-free fuel. The gas liquefaction plant produces approximately 70 bbls of ultra clean fuel per day from natural gas.

A natural gas to liquids, or "gas liquefaction" ultra clean fuels facility in the U.S.

New technologies in the "natural gas to liquids" industry decreases expenses through increased efficiencies and converts natural gas to ultra clean fuel. These facilities typically consist of three primary components: an autothermal reformer that converts the natural gas into synthesis gas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen; a Fischer-Tropsch unit that produces synthetic crude oil from the synthesis gas; and a refining unit that upgrades the synthetic crude to ultra clean fuels. These fuels, which can then be transported through existing pipelines, are now being tested in bus fleets operated by the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and the National Park Service in Denali, Alaska.

Many more of these facilities are being planned.

For more information on natural gas liquefaction, call us at: 832-758-0027 or review our following websites:

* Some of the above information from the Department of Energy website with permission.