Greyrock, Tsinhua U, DRI to assess potential of synthetic diesel to improve air quality in China
17 March 2017
Greyrock Energy, a developer of a gas-to-liquids (GTL) process that produces synthetic diesel, will participate with Tsinghua University of Beijing, China and the Desert Research Institute (DRI) of Reno, Nevada to quantify the positive impact on air quality from the use of synthetic diesel fuels as compared with petroleum derived diesel fuels. Beijing was chosen as the initial focus of this study given the concerns abount air quality.
Greyrock’s GTL process produces synthetic diesel fuels that meet or exceed diesel fuel specifications established by ASTM D975. The improved characteristics of the Greyrock synthetic diesel over petroleum based alternatives include higher cetane, virtually no sulfur or aromatics, and excellent lubricity.
Greyrock’s synthetic diesel burns more cleanly and efficiently than comparable petroleum based fuels resulting in reductions of particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions.
Greyrock synthetic fuels can also improve diesel vehicle economy and extend the life of diesel engines by providing superior lubricity. Synthetic fuels may be used for other practical applications such as cooking and domestic heating, potentially resulting in up to 100 times less particulate emissions than coal fired stoves.
DRI is particularly interested in studying the multiple benefits of using China’s agricultural waste to generate synthetic fuels, thereby reducing air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions from biomass burning and finding better uses for China’s large stock of agricultural waste.
Tsinghua, a leading university in Asia, will lead the efforts to carry out the vehicle emission modeling in Beijing.
The models and databases developed in this study will be key to future efforts to access and improve air quality in other large cities such as Los Angeles, Mumbai, Bangkok and Tokyo.
—Dr. Dennis Schuetzle, Greyrock’s Chief Technology Officer
Founded in 2006, Greyrock has developed its state of the art Direct Fuel Production technology and GreyCat catalyst, enabling production of clean liquid fuels from a variety of gas resources, including natural gas, natural gas liquids, flare gas and bio-gas.
Greyrock’s proprietary GreyCat catalyst, which is not a traditional Fischer-Tropsch catalyst, directly converts syngas into diesel fuel with high selectivity. The GreyCat catalyst eliminates the wax upgrading stage and therefore reduces complexity and cost associated with small scale DFP systems.
This allows Greyrock to effectively scale down its systems to small modular units that can be sited in areas where other, larger projects would not be cost effective. Greyrock’s GreyCat catalyst is manufactured in the United States using readily available materials.
Desert Research Institute is the nonprofit research arm of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Im interrested to buy but they are not selling in my area and i have a gas car and electric home heating.
Posted by: gorr | 20 March 2017 at 01:56 PM
It is now time to begin, at long last, the end of diesel piston engines. Turbines do not have stringent fuel requirements and produce cleaner exhaust with lower nitrogen oxides, particles and and carbon monoxide than any piston engine and do it without exhaust post treatment.
The hybrid automobile will make up for the deficiencies of eliminating pistons and allow for greater fuel efficiency as well. Crankshaft torque is not now needed. The air-bearings of several micro-turbines may not, as of yet, be able to withstand the shocks of operating a railroad locomotive, and this can be corrected, and is not necessary for road vehicles.
Ian Wright, formerly of TESLA, is showing the way with heavy production vehicles and turbines as it saves much more fuel for heavy vehicles to be fuel efficient than automobiles; as they are used many more miles a year with very high fuel costs per mile.
Electric automobiles, with a tiny rescue engine for eliminating range anxiety but seldom used, are far more than suitable for most passenger use. The ZEBRA battery still exists and can be used for the life of an automobile of more than 20 years and were tested with long range more than ten years ago, and were used in European TH!NK cars. Tiny very high speed rescue engines are well able to move an electric vehicle along with regular city traffic; acceleration, regeneration and partial braking are provided by the main battery.
Coates Limited invented rotary valves which can allow very high speeds which can itself allow for very high power to run a tiny high speed alternator to provide a moderate speed to destination where recharging is available. Efficiency of the rescue charger is of no importance because people with greater range and speed desires on a frequent basis will use a larger more powerful vehicle with full hybrid high power. RCV also has rotary valve hobby engines of high speeds and power per size.
The ARTEMIS hybrid technology may be the cheapest, most efficient and least used. ARTEMIS was taken up by MHI to tilt at windmills after being buried by BOSCH, and no reports are available as to the efficiency or productivity of the three machines, two with seven megawatt rating.
Info about ARTEMIS hybrid automobiles has nearly vanished with the reports that it has been awarded monies to go to the start again and recreate, Salters Ducks, for wave energy. Artemis also gets to prove again, with heavier vehicles and bigger engines, That the hybrid hydraulic rail vehicle can do more efficiency just like Mister Parry and his Parry People Movers did decades ago; this is to remind people that electric locomotives for freight, also with flywheels to bridge the necessary gaps in the rail, did save much coal, during and after WWII, for rail lines electrified with third rail for electrical multiple unit trains (EMU) which allowed gaps to be bridged by two or more cars and electrical conductors from car to car of the complete train.
People might care to try the INNAS NOAX crank-free hydraulic pump along with ARTEMIS Digital Displacement technology to complete the system and take the system to the extreme and only use the piston on a stroke by stroke basis instead of starting and stopping an engine.
The NOAX is possibly the best current design for an engine that can compression ignite natural gas (methane, ethane, propane, butane etc.) as well as have a long cheap operating life.
DME, Di-Methyl-Ether can also be made from synthesis gas much more easily and has the highest cetane rating and is much less likely to form particulates and is handled much like propane in liquid tanks at low pressures. People may not know that synthesis gas can be easily made from natural gas and much is used to make ammonia fertilizer.
Whilst a process does not exist, energetically it is possible to get a net amount of heat from combining the oxygen in the air with the nitrogen and water from anywhere to supply energy needs and acidify the ocean (actually only just reduce the alkalinity) at a great rate without the production of any CO2 or H2O the greatest green house gas available.
It is not known if it takes less energy to make Nitrogen-Oxides in an engine optimized to do so or to do it with hydrogen from synthesis gas. Until industrial chemistry was created, nitrogen oxides were the main source of nitrogen for plants created by organisms with energy from organic remains in the soil. Leather and ashes were rotted at one time to form one of the constituents of gun powder two or three centuries ago. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 05 April 2017 at 12:44 AM