Shell GTL Liquids in Diesel Fuel

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Caught this on a TDI forum I visit. Looks like GTL technology is being used in fuel as well as lubricatring fluids.

V-Power Diesel is Shell's version of an enhanced diesel fuel, similar, say to BPs 'Ultimate Diesel'. Like BP Ultimate Diesel, Shell V-Power Diesel is designed for modern compression-ignition diesel engines, to facilitate enhanced engine performance along with increased engine protection, for more consistent operation and engine longevity.[5]
V-Power Diesel is a blend of regular petroleum-based diesel and synthetic diesel, created using gas to liquids (GTL), along with some extra additives designed to clean the injection system and improve injection pump and injector lubricity.
One characteristic of V-Power diesel is that it is a lot clearer and odourless than normal diesel, mainly due to the synthetic GTL component.
The fuel is slightly less dense than regular diesel so, per volume, the unit energy is actually lower than regular diesel. This is offset, as the fuel tends to ignite more readily (and thus has a higher cetane rating) than regular diesel, and a side benefit of this is that it tends to produce less soot during combustion.
Shell also markets a different "premium" diesel in Canada labeled V-Power, which they state "Is specially formulated for year-round Canadian weather conditions, with a cetane improver, a de-icer and a corrosion inhibitor."[6] but Shell also states that V-Power diesel will typically have an increased cetane rating of 1 to 2 points over standard diesel, which meets Transport Canada's minimum mandated rating of 40.[7] This Canadian V-Power diesel is dispensed from a dedicated pump that injects a measured amount of NEMO 2061 additive into the diesel supply shared with the other diesel pumps at the service station. [8]As a result it contains no GTL components beyond those that may already exist in the shared diesel supply.
 
I don't doubt it. But this may be an interesting way to convert some of the Marcellus gas into usable liquid fuels. Worth keeping an eye on this. Kind of harkens back to the old German-South African coal to liquid plants.
 
It's a technology that some of the small cap companies in Oz are using to get Coal Seam Gas to market...GTL and use a truck, rather than pipe it.

One company is attempting to start underground gasification, and then GTL from the derived syngas.
 
GTL: I wonder if Shell will be interested in the Navy's new technology to convert seawater into kerosene? The reduction and hydrogenation of CO2 dissolved in seawater to form hydrocarbons is accomplished using a catalyst that is similar to those used for Fischer-Tropsch reduction and hydrogenation of carbon monoxide. By modifying the surface composition of iron catalysts in fixed-bed reactors, the Navy has successfully improved CO2 conversion efficiencies up to 60 percent.
 
Some articles have been quoting experts as saying this could result in $3 to $6 per gallon fuel within 10 years. Get some electricity from nuclear or solar, and do the GTL cheap enough. Or run everything on natural gas and or coal.
 
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