Gas to liquids

Two general strategies exist: (i) direct partial combustion of methane to methanol and (ii) Fischer–Tropsch-like processes that convert carbon monoxide and hydrogen into hydrocarbons.

Technologies reliant on partial combustion have been commercialized mainly in regions where natural gas is inexpensive.

In the early 1970s, Mobil developed an alternative procedure in which natural gas is converted to syngas, and then methanol.

In the first step methanol is partially dehydrated to give dimethyl ether: The mixture of dimethyl ether and methanol is then further dehydrated over a zeolite catalyst such as ZSM-5, and in practice is polymerized and hydrogenated to give a gasoline with hydrocarbons of five or more carbon atoms making up 80% of the fuel by weight.

[6][7] Methanol to olefins technology is widely used in China in order to produce plastics from coal gasification.

This process consists of four fixed bed reactors in series in which a syngas is converted to synthetic fuels.

These enzymes support the existence of methanotrophs, microorganisms that metabolize methane as their only source of carbon and energy.

They catalyze the oxygenation according to the following stoichiometry: Anaerobic methanotrophs rely on the bioconversion of methane using the enzymes called methyl-coenzyme M reductases.

Strenuous efforts have been made to elucidate the mechanisms of these methane-converting enzymes, which would enable their catalysis to be replicated in vitro.

Royal Dutch Shell produces a diesel from natural gas in a factory in Bintulu, Malaysia.

[19] New generation of GTL technology is being pursued for the conversion of unconventional, remote and problem gas into valuable liquid fuels.