According to the company, its gas to methanol micro plant process offers an alternative to simply wasting natural gas by burning it in a flare.
Until now, the predominant method for producing methanol has involved feeding large natural gas volumes into refinery scale, Fischer-Tropsch systems to produce methanol. These systems typically operate at high pressures and high temperatures. R3 Sciences said that its gas-to-methanol micro-plant will operate at lower pressures and temperatures, which lower the cost and complexity of operations.
The company added that its proprietary micro-plant gas-to-liquids technology doesn’t require either field gas compressors or pipeline access, which appeals to more and more operators as gas production resources grow beyond local pipeline capacity.
The micro-plant concept allows producers to create a market for their small natural gas volumes, the company said. The system combines three major process components including syngas production, gas conditioning and catalytic reaction to produce methanol. The process uses air as its source of oxygen in the production of syngas (a gas comprised of carbon monoxide, hydrogen and nitrogen), lowering the cost and complexity of the system.
David Trahan, president and CTO of R3 Sciences, said: “The R3 Sciences process effectively leverages several off-the-shelf gas processes, integrating these with R3 Sciences unique patent-pending and proprietary catalyst technologies.”
Researchers at R3 Sciences are also looking into other sources of methane such as biogas and biomass syngas as a feedstock potential for gas to methanol process.
