Sasol highlights commercial GTL expertise at Natural Gas Conversion Symposium in Qatar

"The NGCS is an ideal platform for Sasol to showcase not only our innovative technology, but the commercial application that has led to our world-leading position in synthetic fuels," said Marjo Louw, Country President, Sasol Qatar.

"Natural gas has emerged as a major component in the global power generation market, but until recently it lacked the versatility to address other pressing energy needs. We must work together to drive commercial acceptance of GTL products," he added.

Hosted by the Natural Gas Conversion Board and Texas A&M University at Qatar, the NGCS 10 is titled, 'Gas Conversion: The Clean Energy of the Future'. Sasol has taken platinum sponsorship of the event with ORYX GTL, its joint venture with Qatar Petroleum in Qatar.

More than 300 researchers, scientists and industry executives from 32 countries are participating in the event, held under the patronage of His Excellency Dr. Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy & Industry, Qatar.

Sasol made presentations as part of the Commercial panel on the following topics:
Philip Gibson, Sasol Technology - 'The Importance of Fundamental Insight for Accelerating the Development of a Cobalt Fischer-Tropsch Catalyst Regeneration Process'.
Alex Vogel, Sasol Technology - 'Intensification of the Sasol SPD reactor - realizing potential'.

The Commercial session was capped by a keynote by Louw, speaking on the topic of, 'Unlocking GTL Value at Scale: Stability and Efficiency'. He reiterated the bright future ahead for GTL given the rapid increase in gas production and an indication that the dissociation between oil and natural gas prices will continue.

Vogel spoke about maintaining constant reactor volume, while enhancing conversion efficiency through relative increases in gas velocity and catalyst concentration. The promise is potentially doubling the capacity of the reactor at essentially the same reactor volume. This would create cost and design efficiencies that are integral to continued commercial scale-up to meet the demands of the global energy market now, and in the future.

Gibson's presentation focused on the catalyst, a crucial element in the economic viability of the gas conversion process. He reviewed the research Sasol is conducting with academic partners into the deactivation mechanisms that lead to the need for replacement of catalyst material. The research has been validated at demonstration scale, resulting in multiple regeneration cycles on a demonstration unit. Longer-lasting catalysts would effectively lower catalyst cost and result in reduced consumption of raw material.

Sasol's participation follows its sponsorship and representation at the World GTL Congress, held in Doha in January 2013.