Originally Posted by Nyogtha
I haven't read them, but I doubt those pages say the Shell XHVI stocks mentioned by you and Shannow to be from a GTL process. Can you confirm Gokhan?
Yes, it's in the first page. It says, since 1993 - 1994, XHVI has used the Fischer - Tropsch wax (GTL wax) from the Bintulu, Malaysia, plant as the feedstock to generate the XHVI base stock. Before 1993, it used slack wax obtained from crude oil as the feedstock.
So, XHVI has been GTL since 1993 - 1994.
A more detailed reference:
https://www.researchgate.net/public...yst_will_optimize_product_yield_in_Qatar
Abstract: Shell was the first oil marketer to commercialize gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology for base oil production, with the commissioning of the multi-purpose GTL facility in Bintulu, Malaysia, in 1993. Bintulu produced detergent feedstocks, a range of Fischer-Tropsch (FT) commercial wax grades and a feedstock, a so-called waxy raffinate (WR), to produce base oil. WR production involves the hydro-isomerization of a FT wax made from a first generation FT wax synthesis catalyst, using a fixed bed reactor, with the wax having a maximum carbon number of ∠100. This FT wax is then hydrocracked and hydroisomerized. Shipped to Shell facilities in Japan and France, the WR was solvent de-waxed, becoming the first commercially available GTL base oil in the market. This was a 5 cs grade marketed as Shell XHVI™. In 2009, the first phase of Shell's GTL facility in Qatar will be on stream. It will include substantial base oils facilities, producing a full range of viscosity grades from 2 to > 9 cs. With a total capacity of the first phase of 70,000 bpd, the output of the Qatar plant will be just under five times the capacity of Bintulu. Shell's first generation GTL base oils had exceptionally high VI (> 140), good Noack volatility characteristics, high saturates content (> 99%) and a predominantly iso-paraffin content. The difference between first generation Shell GTL base oils from Bintulu and the second generation is primarily due to new proprietary catalysts, which lead to higher yield of material in the lubricating oil carbon number range and the use of a Shell catalytic de-waxing technology for final de-waxing of the base oils, rather than solvent de-waxing.