ExStol - Exelus synthesis gas to liquids technology

The Gas-to-Liquids process first converts natural gas to a mixture of hydrogen and CO (called synthesis-gas) by partial oxidation or steam reforming of methane. Synthesis-gas is then converted into a range of products termed synthetic crude via the Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) reaction. Exelus is developing a step-out FTS technology ExStol, which combines all the benefits of slurry operation (minimal pore-diffusion barriers, high heat transfer rates, and low pressure drop) with the benefits of fixed-bed operation (no filtration, plug-flow for both gas and liquid phases, and simplified scale-up) in a single reactive system without requiring a large liquid recycle. This results in a significant reduction in both capital and operating expenses of a FTS unit. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 230th ACS National Meeting (Washington, DC 8/28/2005-9/1/2005).