Comprehensive Applications Testing of Diesel from a Commercial Scale Gas-to-Liquids Plant

This paper reports on the comprehensive applications testing of the first commercial volumes of Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) diesel produced via the Sasol Slurry Phase Distillate™ (Sasol SPD™) process, a Low Temperature Fischer-Tropsch (LTFT) process, at the Oryx GTL plant in Qatar. The technical literature is well populated with results of emissions and applications studies of GTL diesel; however, these results have been limited to product produced at pilot plant and relatively small commercial scale. To ensure that diesel produced commercially not only matches the performance of material previously produced at pilot plant scale using the same technology, but is also fit-for-purpose in the broader sense, a series of chemical assessments and applications testing was performed using both neat and blended diesel fuels. These included emissions tests in passenger cars and heavy-duty applications, engine durability, injector fouling performance and a passenger car fleet trial. The evaluation found that the product from the commercial plant was fit-for-purpose in both neat and blended form and validated all claims made to date on GTL diesel from a pilot plant.