New catalyst fuelling the dream for cheap GTL

By NOAH BRENNER Houston

 13 January 2012 01:57 GMT

Turning natural gas into a liquid transport fuel cheaply and efficiently has become the dream of every US natural gas producer plagued by low prices.

Chesapeake Energy founder and chief executive Aubrey McClendon has even referred to it as “the holy grail” — and a small technology company in California believes it may have found it.

Santa Barbara-based Carbon Sciences is pushing a new catalyst for the gas-to-liquids process that could cut capital and operating costs of GTL plants and reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.

The company’s chief executive Byron Elton said the process is a more efficient way to derive syngas, a basic feedstock comprised of oxygen and carbon monoxide that is then fed into the Fischer-Tropsch…

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