 |
| Purpose of Establishment |
Amidst the global growing demand for energy, energy security is an
urgent issue of major importance to Japan. Against this background,
by enabling the production of liquid fuels from the abundant sources
of natural gas available across the globe, GTL technology will not only
ensure a liquid fuel source (establishment of liquid fuels produced
from natural gas and diversification of primary energy supplies) as
an alternative to petroleum, but will also be highly effective as a
means of reducing dependency on oil-producing countries in the Middle
East.
High quality fuel products resulting from GTL technology (hereinafter
referred to as "GTL products") are not only sulfur and aromatics content-free,
but also feature characteristics of a high quality fuel such as high
cetane index and, it is expected that, when combined with equipment
matched to such characteristics, these products will achieve major reductions
in emissions including sulfur oxide, nitrogen oxide, particulate matter
(PM) and carbon dioxide to reduce the environmental burden.
Additionally, by the GTL technology developed during the current research,
the use of carbon dioxide, the major contributor to global warming,
as part of the raw materials (feed stock) becomes possible, which offers
the potential to collect and make effective use not only of carbon dioxide
contained in natural gas, but also of carbon dioxide emitted into the
atmosphere from a wide range of sources.
Against this background, the Nippon GTL Technology Research Association
will carry out verification testing on a scale of 500 BPSD (BPSD: barrels
per stream day) of Gas to Liquids (hereinafter referred to as "GTL")
technology as a preparatory step for application on a commercial scale and will also evaluate method for up-scaling to a commercial level with the goal of developing GTL technology capable of performing both technically and economically on a commercial scale (15,000 BPSD/train or higher).
|
| Details of research |
| 1. |
Duration of research and budget
| (1) |
Duration of research: FY2006 to
FY2011 (provisional) |
| (2) |
Budget: Approximately 36 billion yen (5 years) |
|
| 2. |
Establishment of GTL technology within
the verification model
| (1) |
Design/fabrication/construction
of verification research equipment |
| (2) |
Operation of verification equipment/collection
of data |
| (3) |
Confirmation of market compliance of GTL products |
| (4) |
Research into enhanced competitiveness |
|
| 3. |
Establishment of operational technology for application
to commercial models |
| 4. |
Establishment of method to scale-up to commercial
model levels |
| 5. |
Evaluation of commercial projects
| (1) |
Surveys into natural gas resources,
investment environment, etc. |
| (2) |
Evaluation of economic viability of commercial
projects |
|
| 6. |
Research Plan
 |
|
|
|
