Gas to Liquids

Basics

• Often Abbreviated as GTL
• Traditionally uses natural gas and/or syngas to produce liquid fuels, we will use syngas carbon monoxide + hydrogen and/or anaerobic fermentor methane

Processes

Fischer–Tropsch

• Fischer-Tropsch

Methane to Methanol

• Methane to Methanol

Methanol to Dimethyl Ether

• Methanol to Dimethyl Ether and/or subsection of the page on Dimethyl Ether on production/synthesis

Dimethyl Ether and/or Methanol into Hydrocarbons

• Commercialized Process
• Need to look into Catalysts used etc
• Methanol to Olefins is one such example

Biological Gas-to-Liquids (Bio-GTL)

• Feed the Methane to Methanotrophs
• Extract the Oil ( Re: PPO ) from the methanotrophs to make Transesterification Biodiesel / Biodiesel
• The Oil Could also be Hydrotreated into Renewable Diesel (More complex than Transesterification, but (near-) identical to Petrodiesel )
• Alternatively one could Use the Methanotrophs Harvested:
  • As media for Fermentation
    • This could be done via
      • Standard Yeast for Ethanol; same process as used for Vodka and other Alcoholic Beverages (this also produces some Methanol )
      • Acetone-butanol-ethanol fermentation
      • Any sort of Fuels / Hydrocarbons produces by Genetic Engineering of the Yeast
  • As Feedstocks for Pyrolysis or HTL
  • As Feedstocks for Gasification
  • As a Solid Fuel (as is, Pelletized and/or made into Charcoal Fuel )
• There is a company doing this with Low Grade Coal for Humic Acid / Fuel Production, grab info from OSE Discord later

Syngas to Ethanol

• A novel process being commercialized largely in China
• Not too relevant in an OSE context due to traditional fermentation or Cellulosic Ethanol techniques making more sense if Ethanol is desired
• In a geopolitical attempt to hold food prices stable while using more Ethanol as a Blendstock (as an Octane Booster and/or Fuel Oxygenate Additive ) in a country with HUGE coal reserves it can make a BIT of geopolitical sense but anything slowing Coal Phaseout will be disastrous for Climate Change regardless
• Still an interesting technology worth looking into/documenting though

Internal Links

• Biofuels

External Links

• Wikipedia Page on Gas to Liquids