SPRING LITERATURE SHOWCASE 2015
2 SPRING LITERATURE SHOWCASE 2015 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com
N
atural Gas has long been a foe for heating fuels
distributors—at least those not selling 3rd party
residential gas service. Sacramento, Calif.-based
Greyrock is looking to change that by using spe-
cialized catalysts to turn natural gas and related feedstocks
into a clean diesel fuel for transportation and heating.
Gas-to-liquid technology aims to crack gaseous hydro-
carbons such as natural gas and convert them into liquid
fuels. The concept is not new, but has typically involved
major facilities. Grayrock was founded in 2006 to focus on
small-scale GTL.
"We realize there is a place in the world for massive GTL,
but spending $20 billion on these plants with seven-year
build cycles is not for the faint of heart, and very few com-
panies can make that happen," said Greyrock CEO Robert
Schuetzle. "We focused on the exact opposite end of the
spectrum—on small-scale modular plants that are great fit
for a lot of the shale plays here in North America. We call it
distributed gas-to-liquid versus centralized gas-to-liquid."
Key to that distributed process was the development of a
catalyst that can go directly from the intermediate product
syngas into diesel fuel without going to a wax, and then
having to refine that wax which as is the case with a tradi-
tional the Fischer–Tropsch process.
"With a traditional technology, as you scale it down
to 2,000 barrels or 1,000 barrels a day the capital expen-
ditures break down and your operational expenditures
break down—you just can't shrink these things and do it
the same way the big boys are doing it," said Schuetzle.
"Developing this unique catalyst allows us a very simple
technology package to directly produce a diesel fuel that is
road ready and a true hydrocarbon fuel."
The technology is moving forward. It has scaled up three
times with commercial demonstration program that has
run for two years in Toledo, Ohio. The company is now
fabricating its first commercial units to be operational by the
end of the year.
The value proposition for a plant operator—and ulti-
Turning Natural Gas
into Diesel
Greyrock's unique catalyst makes gas-to-liquid easier than ever
BY KEITH REID
