Gas Conversion: Technology at the Tipping Point?

As natural gas becomes more and more abundant, the potential supply exceeds the demand expected from power and heat applications. Methane could be the ideal raw material for production of cleaner-burning, lower carbon fuels. We have not so far seen a wave of investments in GTL projects, even for higher margin scenarios such as flaring avoidance. The reason is simple: current technologies are too capital intensive relative to other options, and have less than stellar carbon-efficiency. Technology developers and researchers have not been standing still, however. Over the past 5-10 years, several potentially step-out new technologies have passed into the later stages of development and/or demonstration. At the same time, several new scientific leads have emerged in the academic literature which could lead to further advances in cost and yield. These new and improved approaches, deployed in the right combinations, could bring gas conversion into competition with other gas monetization options.

This keynote address will discuss the current state of art in gas conversion technologies, including syngas generation and conversion as well as direct methane conversion pathways. The emerging new technologies and ideas will be examined in terms of what they may bring in terms of cost reduction and yield improvement. Finally, the remaining gaps and areas where further R&D is needed to arrive at the "tipping point" will be outlined for the community. The talk should provide a excellent scene set for the topics and ideas to be presented in the rest of the meeting.

Note: This initial abstract is a placeholder. A more specific abstract text will be provided later.