Skip to content
October 26, 2021

How G2L™ emerged as the leading solution for natural gas monetization

After 20 years of developing, building, servicing, and finetuning, our G2L™ technology solution stands out as a reliable and profitable investment in the natural gas space. This single-point-license offering gives investors and developers the certainty of a complete, integrated, and top-performing technological solution.


G2L


If you seek to maximize the value output from natural gas, methane-rich gas, biogas, water, or electricity reserves, there’s no better available option than G2L™.

 

The process combines and integrates four best-in-class technologies to provide you a complete Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) solution. Unlike any alternative offering, G2L™ provides you with a single license to build and operate a fully integrated commercial plant.

 

This model puts you in complete control of the cornerstone in Gas-to-Liquid infrastructure. With a potential decarbonization route and a significant ROI potential, it constitutes a sustainable investment.

 

This article outlines how G2L™ emerged as the leading solution in the space and how it can create value for investors.

 

Commercializing natural gas

Since the 1940’s, natural gas has emerged as a significant energy source in the global power generation and heating market. For years, these two application areas largely remained the only ones available for gas producers, who didn’t have pathways to other energy needs, such as transportation fuels.

 

Furthermore, the gas was monetized employing large pipelines or LNG, resulting in large reserves often being “stranded” with no easy access to markets.

 

This changed in 1997 when Sasol developed its Low-Temperature Fischer Tropsch™ technology. In conjunction with Topsoe’s SynCOR™ technology, it enabled the production of high-quality clean fuels and chemicals from natural gas reserves.

 

In contrast to liquified natural gas (LNG), which is essentially chilled to very low temperatures to facilitate transportation, GTL technology fundamentally alters the natural gas molecules. This allows the conversion into liquid fuels and chemicals. 

 

While the GTL solution constituted a breakthrough, it also presented new challenges. To establish GTL operations, project owners, developers, and their engineering contractors had to manage the interfaces of several discrete technology blocks, with each technology supplier only guaranteeing their separate block.

 

Each block was subject to a myriad of feed and product specifications, inclusions, and exclusions, making development projects subject to significant risks. The many interfaces left room for errors, and no single party would guarantee that the different technology blocks would work together.

 

The only integrated solution in the field

Unlike any other Gas-to-Liquids solution, G2L™ offers a single point of responsibility. By integrating Topsoe and Sasol technologies, the solution provides a proven setup and second-to-none services from two industry leaders in one unified offering.

 

With Topsoe and Sasol seamlessly interacting behind the scenes, to offer a single point licence, owners and engineering contractors engage with a single entity that delivers the engineering solution and provides process guarantees over multiple technology blocks. Topsoe and Sasol oversee the integration of the technology units internally, ensuring optimal operability, controllability and energy integration covering all operating cases. 

 

Having worked extensively with large-scale commercial units engineering, startup and operation of facilities comprising Reforming, Fischer Tropsch, and Product Workup, Sasol and Topsoe offer a SPL (single point licensor) team with a deep understanding of the many complex integration challenges.

 

This SPL team’s project commitment encompasses four critical phases to ensure the optimum result, including concept development, process integration, project execution, and improvement.

 

With the integration of licensed units no longer an owner’s concern, owners and contractors can focus on other project aspects. By offering a “feed-in/product out” guarantee, G2L™ minimizes project risks and improves bankability.

 

A futureproof operation

The commitment doesn’t stop when your plant is up and running. As we are constantly at the forefront of innovation in the field, facility operators get ongoing access to relevant future improvements and adjustments through extended technical and digital services to ensure operation at peak performance. This commitment has been demonstrated through licensee forums to drive operations improvements and share best practices across operating sites and with connected services.

 

The efficiency of G2L™ operation is also constantly improved on all essential parameters. For instance, energy consumption has seen a significant 20% drop ever since the first G2L™ plant

 

What’s more, G2L™ plant owners are ensured of technological advantages that are best in class. For example, Sasol’s slurry phase Low Temperature Fischer Tropsch™ technology offers critical benefits, such as isothermal operation, allowing higher operating temperature, improved selectivity, higher conversion levels, and reduced maintenance costs.

 

Topsoe’s SynCOR™ technology is recognized in the market as the most efficient syngas technology for large scale production, not only in GTL operations but also in large methanol and ammonia plants.

 

With Topsoe’s hydroprocessing technologies you are also ensured the best diesel and jet fuel yields in the market along with the opportunity to tailor your product slate to market needs.

 

As the only solution in the field, G2L™ covers the entire capacity spread, allowing owners and developers to build everything from pilot-scale operations to the biggest plants in the world. 

 

Whatever your operation size, you will benefit from the unique Topsoe-Sasol relationship that has spanned more than 25 years and a long list of commercially demonstrated plants worldwide. In short, with G2L™, you get a futureproof operation.

 

Read more about market opportunities with G2L™ here. https://www.topsoe.com/processes/synthetic-fuels


Industrial reference plants

Oryx GTL, Qatar
  • 32,400 bpd nameplate capacity
  • Start-up 2006
Escravos GTL, Nigeria
  • 33,200 bpd nameplate capacity
  • Start-up 2014
Sasol Wax production expansion, South Africa
  • Completed 2015
  • 2 slurry bed LTFT reactors of 2,500 bpd each added
Oltin Yo’l GTL, Uzbekistan
  • 37,600 bpd design capacity
  • Start-up planned 2022


Topsoe at a glance
Haldor Topsoe is a global leader in supply of catalysts, technology, and services to the chemical and refining industries. Topsoe aims to be the global leader within carbon emission reduction technologies by 2024. By perfecting chemistry for a better world, we enable our customers to succeed in the transition towards renewable energy. Topsoe is headquartered in Denmark and serves customers around the globe.

Sasol at a glance
Sasol is a global integrated chemicals and energy company spanning 30 countries. Sustainability has become a major driver in our business where we advance chemical and energy solutions that contribute to a thriving planet, society, and enterprise. We develop and commercialize technologies and build and operate world-scale facilities to produce a range of high-value product streams, including liquid fuels, chemicals, and low-carbon electricity. We are an entrepreneurial, agile, truly global team that connects our unique technologies with our customers and partners to create value and develop sustainable solution for a better world.

Share your thoughts

Comment on this post

Other posts you might be interested in