CHAPTER 8: Membrane-assisted Syngas Production for Gas-to-Liquid Processes

Gas-to-liquid (GTL) technologies have been studied for several decades but are still considered economically unfavorable due, in particular, to the cost intensive step of syngas production. The use of membrane reactors coupled with novel routes for syngas production such as that of Catalytic Partial Oxidation can be considered the basis for the development of novel process schemes suitable for GTL applications. Indeed, the production of syngas at temperatures lower than traditional ones without affecting the natural gas conversion can be considered as a viable solution to save both in terms of feed consumption and plant complexity. The aim of this chapter is to report the experimentation performed by KT – Kinetics Technology at pilot scale in the framework of the R&D European Project “Innovative Catalytic Technologies & Materials for Next Gas to Liquid Processes, NEXT-GTL”, one of whose main topics is the development of alternative routes for the production of syngas to be routed to GTL processes.