Tidal Current Energy

The Future of Methane and Coal to Petrol and Diesel Technologies
30%
20%
Synthesis gas generation
Gas conversion and tail gas processing
Product upgrading and utilities
Figure 5.2 . The capital cost breakdown of a GTL plant.
● strategic drive of countries to diversify their energy supply;
● the value addition of the CTL/GTL technologies in comparison with other
●
technologies that will compete for the same resources;
environmental factors.
2.1 . Demand for liquid transportation fuels
Due to the strong economic growth in India, China and North America, it is
estimated that the demand for liquid fuels will increase from 83 � 10 6 barrels
per day in 2004 to 118 � 10 6 barrels per day in 2030 [9] , and that about twothirds
of the growth will be in the transportation sector ( Figure 5.3 (Plate 8)).
The expected sustained oil price of more than US $49 per barrel creates an
opportunity for the application of CTL and GTL technologies and other nonconventional
sources, since there are few competitive alternatives for liquid
transportation fuels. From Figure 5.4 (Plate 9) it can be seen that the estimated
production of CTL and GTL fuels is expected to increase from 0.38 � 10 6 barrels
per day in 2004 to about 3.6 � 10 6 barrels per day in 2030 [9] .
2.2 . Availability of coal and natural gas, and the strategic role
of GTL and CTL
The estimated remaining world reserves of oil [10] , coal [11] and natural gas
[10] per region are given in Table 5.8 . The data for North America include the
179.2 � 10 9 barrels of Canadian oil sand reserves.
50%
85