Oxford Catalysts technology for Russian GTL plant
17 May 2012
Abingdon, UK – Microchannel Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reactor technology developed by the Oxford Catalysts Group has been chosen for use in a Rosneft gas-to-liquids (GTL) demonstration plant in Russia.
Due for completion by the end of 2014, the plant will be designed and constructed by Rosneft in partnership with the Russian technology commercialisation firm Gazohim Techno. It will be located at Rosneft’s Angarsk petrochemical complex in Irkutsk Oblast, just north of the Russian/Mongolian border.
The facility will have a capacity of 10 million cubic metres per year of natural gas, equivalent to around 100 barrels per day of synthetic crude. It will employ Gazohim’s partial oxidation process.
Oxford Catalysts microchannel FT technology is expected to reduce the plants’ footprint and lower capital and operating costs. The resulting mini-GTL plant will convert associated gas from remote small and medium sized oil fields into synthetic crude.
This demonstration facility is envisioned as the first of many commercial GTL plants to convert gas associated with oil production into synthetic crude or high quality downstream products, including synthetic diesel, waxes and naphtha, an important petrochemical feedstock.
“Rosneft has a stated objective and budget to reduce flaring and make better use of associated gas,” said Jeff McDaniel, commercial director of Oxford Catalysts.
“Our modular microchannel FT reactor technology, which can be scaled to match the size of the resource, is ideally suited for this type of application”
Sergey Dolinskiy, CEO of Gazohim Techno, added: “After an extensive review of alternative Fischer-Tropsch offerings we decided to move forward with Oxford Catalysts’ technology.
“We found it to be the most attractive in combination with our proprietary partial oxidation process for the mini-GTL market we’re targeting.”
With its vast reserves of natural gas and significant quantity of flared gas, Russia represents a major potential market for GTL. The country’s potential for processing associated gas is over 30 billion cubic metres a year.
