Biofuels Power Corporation to build gas-to-liquid plant in Texas

Biofuels Power has signed a letter of intent with ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions and Liberty to establish a small-scale gas-to-liquid (GTL) demonstration plant in Houston, Texas.

They have recognized a target date to finish installation and commissioning of the GTL Plant on or before December 31, 2014.

The purpose of the plant is to exhibit conversion of stranded natural gas resources to synthetic crude oil commercially.

For two years, BFLS will operate the plant and ThyssenKrupp will supplement technical help and contribute an auto-thermal reformer pilot plant that will be used to produce synthesis gas feedstock for synthetic crude oil production.

Liberty will be responsible for providing intellectual property and operating knowledge about crude oil synthesis as well as the relevant catalyst supply. They are also attributed for designing the FT (Fischer Tropsch) Reactor that convert the synthetic gas to synthetic crude oil.

The assembling of the GTL Plant will be done at the Houston Clean Energy Park, which is an industrial estate owned by BFLS.

Mainly, the plant will focus on optimizing design and operability of small-scale gas-to-liquid facilities capable of converting 5 – 10 million cubic feet per day of gas into 500 bbls per day of synthetic crude oil.

Right now, BFLS and Liberty are trying to complete the engineering on a 500 bbls per day plant design for deploying multiple units in North America.

According to BFLS, these “stranded gas wells” should be released for production if the planned GTL units can produce the natural gas soon after completion of the well.

This project is an achievement towards the goal of installing small scale GTL plants at stranded gas well sites. This pilot plant will prove the commercial viability of initiating such small-scale GTL plants. With an abundant natural gas resource base, future developments like this will cater to the needs of energy industry in future, said, Eric Gadd, CCO, BFLS.

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