Liquid fuels like diesel and kerosene produced from natural gas can easily meet the increasingly stringent emissions standards implemented in North America and Europe.
In contrast to conventional fuels, GTL fuels primarily comprise paraffins and are almost completely free of harmful aromatic hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and sulphur.
Converting natural gas into liquid fuels is a multi-step procedure known as Gas To Liquid (GTL).
First, oxygen is used to convert natural gas to a synthesis gas made up of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. The Fischer-Tropsch process is then applied in a second step to convert this synthesis gas to sulphur-free, liquid hydrocarbons.
Research institutes and companies see great commercial opportunities for GTL fuels.
Volkswagen AG anticipates that annual GTL production will reach around the equivalent of 28 million tonnes of crude oil by 2015, or approximately 205 million barrels. By comparison, around eleven million barrels of conventional diesel fuel are currently produced each day. GTL could be used to substitute part of this production.
Growing demand for air separators to produce GTL fuels presents a promising new growth opportunity for Linde Engineering.
