Lux Research projects methanol-to-gasoline most competitive route for liquid fuels from natural gas or waste
26 July 2013
The price disparity between crude oil and other resources, coupled with the emergence of cheap and abundant shale gas, especially in the United States, is opening up opportunities to produce cheaper gasoline, according to a new report from Lux Research. With crude oil price projected to top $140 per barrel by 2035, alternative fuel technologies, which can produce gasoline at the equivalent of $75 per barrel, will rise, the market research firm concludes in the report “Bringing the Heat: Gas- and Waste-derived Synfuels”.
Lux Research analysts studied the cost of 21 biomass-to-liquids (BTL) and gas-to-liquids (GTL) processes. Among their findings:
-
Methanol-to-gasoline is the cheapest option. At small scale (~1,000 barrels per day), methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) is the most competitive route for liquid fuels from either natural gas ($82 per barrel) or waste ($75 per barrel).
-
GTL (gas-to-liquids) can make ethanol more cheaply, but offers limited product value. Among GTL approaches, ethanol synthesis has the lowest cost of $80 per barrel, while Fischer-Tropsch costs $86 per barrel and MTG costs $82 per barrel. However, ethanol has less product value, due to blending limits and lower energy density.
-
Waste biomass is a ubiquitous alternative. The US Department of Energy (DOE) says that waste biomass could produce 50 billion gallons of ethanol, roughly 3.5 times the current production. Processing the waste is challenging, adding $3.60/bbl to the fuel price—but that’s often more than offset by feedstock cost savings.
Comments