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Step one successful at BP’s gas-to-liquids plant First of three-stage chemical process is operating at BP’s GTL plant in Nikiski, final “white crude” product remains to be produced Patricia Jones Petroleum News Contributing Writer
BP Exploration (Alaska) is producing synthetic gas at its gas-to-liquids demonstration plant in Nikiski, Alaska; the first of the three-stage chemical process for converting natural gas to a clean-burning diesel fuel.
“At this point, we’ve successfully demonstrated that the compact reformer can manufacture syngas,” BP spokesman Dave MacDowell told Petroleum News April 14. “Obviously we’re real excited … everybody is very enthused about what we’re doing.”
One quarter of the size BP’s design for the compact reformer, where natural gas is chemically altered into a carbon monoxide and hydrogen-rich substance called syngas, is roughly one-quarter of the size of conventional technology used in existing GTL plants.
The GTL project is designed to test and prove up two pieces of proprietary technology, MacDowell said, and the compact reformer is one of the two.
The second secret technology that BP will be testing is contained in the next step of the GTL conversion process, where syngas is chemically changed to a “waxy hydrocarbon,” MacDowell said.
BP’s patented catalyst for that conversion is based on using cobalt as the active component, he said. While other GTL plants based on the Fischer-Tropsch process developed during World War II also use cobalt, BP’s proprietary technology involves how the element is used, MacDowell said.
The final step in producing syncrude (also called “white crude” because of its sulfur-free, environmentally friendly characteristics) is the conventional refining process — where the waxy hydrocarbon is hydrocracked to produce useable synthetic fuels, such as diesel, naphtha and lubricating oils.
Final product yet to be produced BP’s $86 million demonstration plant is designed to convert 3 million cubic feet of natural gas to 300 barrels of liquid products on a daily basis, once the entire plant is up and operating. MacDowell could not say when that would occur.
“We have no rigid timelines … we’re learning from every aspect,” he said. “We’re looking at the entire conversion process and how all those pieces will come together.”
Construction at the Nikiski plant was complete about a year ago. Originally, BP said start-up of the GTL demonstration plant would occur in May 2002.
Following construction, components in all three steps of the process have been mechanically tested. In addition, the plant has had short duration start-ups for a number of months, but has yet to produce any of the final syncrude products, he said.
“This design will help us learn, and we’re doing just that,” MacDowell said. “Commissioning a chemical plant is much more complex than commissioning an oil production facility … the conversion process is changing the molecular structure of a compound into something else.” Fuel cell project canceled The Nikiski plant will not be put into commercial production to provide white crude products for Alaska. MacDowell said the estimated length of the test plant’s operation should be 12 to 18 months, less if the technology can be proven in a shorter period of time.
Following that demonstration period, BP plans to disassemble the GTL plant and remediate the site, he said.
“We are testing proprietary technologies and once we prove them up, they will have application any where in the world with stranded gas,” he said.
At this time, BP does not plan to use the technology for commercial gas production in Alaska.
“Our focus for North Slope gas is concentrated on building a pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope to Canada and the U.S. That’s the most viable option,” he said.
A fuel cell project planned to produce electricity at the Nikiski GTL plant has been canceled, MacDowell said. “It became clear that the fuel cell manufacturing process would not match up with our testing process.”
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