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BP looks to commercialize GTL process Engineering firms sign on with BP, partner Davy to help license ‘proven’ Fischer-Tropsch process to convert stranded gas to liquid Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
BP and a London-based partner, Davy Process Technology, on May 3 announced deals with three engineering firms to help commercialize technology to produce liquid hydrocarbons using a “proven” Fischer-Tropsch process.
The three firms were chosen as engineering, procurement and construction contractors through competitive bidding and ranking, a BP press release said.
The contractors are CB&I Lummus UK Ltd., Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. and The Shaw Group Inc., BP said.
BP and Davy say they have honed a Fischer-Tropsch process for producing diesel, JP-8 jet fuel and naphtha from “syngas” derived from natural gas, biomass or coal.
“This technology has been successfully demonstrated in Nikiski, Alaska, with full scale fixed-bed reaction tubes where the nominal 300 barrel per day complex met or exceeded all of its performance targets,” the BP press release said. “This process is now available for license to third parties, and BP’s and Davy’s continuing development is focused on retrofit enhancements.”
GTL appeal German researchers Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch developed a basic gas-to-liquid process in 1923.
Around 2002, BP and Davy built an $86 million plant at Nikiski to prove up proprietary components for making the GTL process more efficient, with less gas loss. The small plant used Cook Inlet natural gas as a feedstock.
BP insisted the plant wasn’t a trial run toward a much larger GTL plant on Alaska’s North Slope, where BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil control at least 35 trillion cubic feet of stranded gas.
But GTL technology nevertheless has tantalized many Alaskans, who have waited in vain for construction of a conventional natural gas pipeline and who can envision converted gas sliding like oil down the existing trans-Alaska pipeline system.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, in a Feb. 24 address to the Alaska Legislature, talked about GTL potential: “I believe it’s time for the State and the producers to consider selling a percentage of their sequestered gas into a small gas-to-liquids facility on the North Slope,” according to the prepared text of her speech. “I’m told that verifiable engineering studies show that one GTL plant’s upfront cost is about a billion dollars and can convert gas into about thirty thousand barrels of oil each day. That seems worth a pilot plant — this would at least add some new synthetic crude into TAPS and extend its life.”
‘Time is ripe’ for gas conversion In its May 3 press release, BP said the three engineering contractors will act as collaborators “to promote the commercialization of the BP/Davy Fischer Tropsch Process.”
The contractors “have signed agreements to work individually with BP/Davy to seek deployment opportunities for the proven BP/Davy Fischer Tropsch (FT) process that transforms syngas into liquid hydrocarbons,” BP said.
“We are very pleased to have gained the collaboration of these three leading contractors in our efforts to commercialize our FT process,” said Mark Howard, BP’s vice president for conversion technology. “Their involvement will help with the early identification and evaluation of opportunities, and ensure the availability of first class engineering resources familiar with our process to support potential licensees.”
Davy’s president, David Tomlinson, added: “We are pleased to see this technology move forward into the market place after extensive development and demonstration at a semi commercial scale. We believe the time is ripe for the conversion of stranded natural gas or coal reserves into liquid fuels especially with demand for liquid fuels at an all time high and the price of crude oil again rising on the international market.”
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