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GTL trials under way BP begins syncrude production at demonstration plant in Nikiski Kristen Nelson Petroleum News Editor-in-Chief
BP’s gas-to-liquids demonstration plant in Nikiski has begun production of synthetic crude oil, the company said Aug. 1. Current production is about 100 barrels per day and is ramping up to approximately 250 barrels per day.
BP said first production on July 26 represented a significant milestone for BP and Davy Process Technology, partners in the new technologies being tested at the plant. Successful demonstration of these technologies will offer significant improvements in the commercial viability of the GTL process, the company said.
GTL technology is used to convert methane gas into high-quality, clean-burning synthetic crude oil, BP said, and could play an important role in commercializing stranded natural gas resources.
When the site was announced three years ago BP said it had considered several sites in the Lower 48 and in the United Kingdom for the facility, as well as other sites in Alaska.
“Alaska was chosen because it represents the largest reserve of undeveloped gas in BP Amoco’s portfolio and we have an ongoing commitment to the stakeholders in Alaska to monetize this resource,” the company said in August 2000.
BP began permitting for the Nikiski GTL demonstration plant in 2000. Construction proceeded through 2001 and mechanical completion was in May of 2002, BP spokesman Dave MacDowell told Petroleum News Aug. 1. Warm up began last year Warm up of individual components at the plant began last year, and syngas, the first step in the process, was produced earlier in the year, testing BP's design for the compact reformer, which chemically alters natural gas and produces syngas. BP's compact reformer is about a quarter the size of technology currently in use. The compact reformer is one of two pieces of proprietary technology the demonstration plant is designed to test and prove up, MacDowell said. He characterized the three steps as: reforming — combining natural gas and steam to form syngas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide; the Fischer Tropsch conversion process; and a third and final stage which is standard refining technology using a hydrocracker to break the wax down into synthetic crude oil or syncrude.
The second proprietary technology is in the next step, where syngas is chemically changed to a waxy hydrocarbon in the Fischer Tropsch conversion process. BP is using a proprietary converter catalyst in that step, MacDowell said.
The syncrude produced at the demonstration plant is trucked to the Tesoro refinery where it is blended in with their feedstock, MacDowell said. Demonstration plant a learning facility The demonstration plant is a learning facility, MacDowell said, and BP's "plan is to run it for the time we think it will take to prove up our technology," estimated at 12 to 18 months.
"It wouldn't surprise me at all if over the weeks and months ahead if we bring the plant down and back up several times to help us learn more about the technology," MacDowell said.
The demonstration plant was "not designed to be commercial scale," he said, but is a demonstration unit. "The whole purpose of this facility is to test these technologies and prove that they work and to learn from the process."
Once the technology is proved up the plant will be dismantled.
MacDowell said BP is "confident that if we can prove up this technology it will help to lower the cost of the gas-to-liquids process and as such could have application anywhere in the world where there are stranded gas reserves."
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