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 Synfuels International has developed an alternative to the syngas/Fischer-Tropsch methodology of natural gas conversion with a patented and proven process that significantly reduces capital and process costs in an environment that dramatically increases product throughput. The Synfuels technology is a GTL process that will produce similar or superior end products at a cost below competitive conventional technology. Since its inception in 1998, Synfuels has made significant progress, proving the Synfuels process works with the production of 95 octane fuel from natural gas in a pilot demonstration plant. The success of initial tests have generated worldwide interest resulting in our first fully operational demonstration plant operating for the benefit of gathering data for the construction of an economical and energy efficient commercial GTL plant. The new non Fischer-Tropsch method of conversion of natural gas to liquid has been deemed the Synfuels ECLAIRS Process — Ethylene from Concentrated Liquid-phase Acetylene - Integrated, Rapid and Safe.
THE NEW SYNFUELS ECLAIRS TECHNOLOGY
Refinements to existing Fischer-Tropsch processes are not likely to provide the order of magnitude change in economics needed to overcome the obstacles of inefficiency and high capital cost. GTL plants must be economical on a stand-alone basis at a much smaller scale than the mega-plants in order to facilitate a broader and faster commercialization by making it possible for liquid fuel to be marketed from the great multitude of stranded and associated gas fields. Smaller plants need smaller fields and require much less capital, allowing more companies and entities to participate. The new Synfuels GTL technology accomplishes these goals. It is a radically new process that achieves better investment returns than the mega-plants at a fraction of their capacity and capital requirements. There are thousands of gas fields capable of supporting a Synfuels GTL plant.
The process to produce a gasoline product from a natural gas feed consists of four main steps - conversion, absorption, hydrogenation and oligomerization. The diagram shows the major constituents in the feeds and products of each step. Depending on plant operating conditions and specific equipment utilized, the relative amounts of the intermediate stream constituents will vary, as will the resulting products and by-products. For example, a syngas by-product is not produced in some configurations or modes of operation as presented in the following diagram.
The key to the new Synfuels technology is the segregation and conversion step where acetylene is separated from other constituents of the cracker effluent and hydrogenated to ethylene using one of the two catalysts developed by Synfuels.
The second processing step in the Synfuels Process is absorption of the acetylene from the cracked gas using a solvent selective to acetylene. The absorption process has also been used in the acetylene industry for decades. The basic technique is a scrubber or contacting column in which the gas flows upward counter-current against the solvent flow. Acetylene-rich solvent exits the column bottom. The remaining gases comprise the column overhead, which as previously mentioned, can be a near optimal syngas stream depending on the cracking method.
Variations of the absorption abound within industries with each practitioner having its own solvent, operating conditions, and equipment configuration and design. Temperatures range widely and are dependent on the cooling media available. Many contactors operate between approximately 70 degrees F to about 120 degrees F. However, to maximize absorption efficiency, it is not an uncommon practice to use refrigeration to lower the operating temperature to the 40 degree F to 60 degree F range. Column pressures typically range from 100 psig to 250 psig.
The heart of the Synfuels technology lies in the third processing step - acetylene hydrogenation. Gas-phase hydrogenation of acetylene into ethylene is truly commonplace, particularly in ethylene production units. The novel invention used here is conducting the reaction in the liquid-phase. In the liquid-phase process, acetylene-rich solvent from the absorption step is fed into a catalytic reactor along with a hydrogen source. With the right catalyst, the acetylene can be completely converted with 98% selectivity to ethylene. The reactor typically operates between 100 psig and 300 psig at temperatures between 200 degrees F and 350 degrees F. The liquid is easily separated from the product gases, cooled, and recycled to the absorption column. The resultant product gas comprises mostly ethylene with non-condensables and a small amount of higher olefins as the balance.
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