Microchannel gas-to-liquid commercialisation in Thailand moves closer

A commercial agreement has been signed between PTT, the national energy company of Thailand and technology company Velocys to begin commercial deployment of a smaller-scale microchannel gas-to-liquid (GtL) technology.

PTT is particularly interested in Velocys’ smaller-scale modular technology as a means to monetise associated gas from on-shore wells which is currently disposed of by flaring.

The two companies have been collaborating since 2009 and. in February 2010, PTT agreed to provide funding to support the development and commercialisation of Velocys’ microchannel steam methane reforming SMR technology.

PTT has also opened a new experimental facility for testing microchannel reactors at its Research Institute in Wangnoi, approximately 70km north of Bangkok, in 2012.

The next phase of collaboration has PTT commissioning Toyo Engineering to conduct a detailed engineering design of a 100 barrel per day (bpd) GtL facility that will include Velocys’ technologies. The location of the facility will be finalised at the end of the FEED study in mid-2014, depending on the availability of gas resource and synergies with existing facilities.

Jeff McDaniel, commercial director of Velocys, comments this move is ‘a great step forward towards enabling the use of smaller scale microchannel GTL technology for onshore facilities’.

PTT believes smaller-scale GtL, based on the use of microchannel SMR followed by Fischer-Tropsch  synthesis, offers a promising option for producing valuable liquid fuels from gas resources that would otherwise be wasted.