GTL Technology
Building upon the 50 years of Gas-To-Liquids (GTL) innovation and 3,500 Shell patents.
Gas-To-Liquids (GTL) is the umbrella term for the technology that is used to produce a suite of synthetic hydrocarbon liquids through the Fischer-Tropsch process.
At the heart of Shell's GTL technology is the proprietary Shell Middle Distillate Synthesis process.
Stage 1
The GTL process consists of three stages: In the first stage, natural gas is partially oxidised to create a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which is then known as synthesis gas, or syngas. Impurities are removed from the syngas.
Stage 2
The second stage converts the synthesis gas into liquid hydrocarbons using a catalyst. In this stage, a liquid is formed which looks and feels like wax at room temperature.
Stage 3
The final stage is cracking and isomerisation, which 'tailors' the molecule chains into products with desired properties. This yields GTL products that are colourless, odourless liquid hydrocarbons of very high quality that have very low levels of impurities like sulphur, aromatics and nitrogen.
