In 2012 Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.’s CENPES Research and Development Centre successfully concluded its extensive test programme of the CompactGTL modular GTL plant and approved its process conception for use by Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras).

In October 2006, we announced an agreement with Petrobras, the Brazilian government-backed oil company, to produce up to 20 barrels per day of syncrude.

José Formigli, Executive Manager of PETROBRAS E&P Production Engineering, said: “We chose CompactGTL as our partner as we believe they have an economic solution for handling the gas produced in association with oil offshore where gas pipelines are not economically viable.”

Carlos Tadeu, Executive Manager of PETROBRAS R&D Center, said: “We see this joint development as a potential major breakthrough in gas-to-liquids technology for offshore application.”

Petrobras confirmed the contract with CompactGTL, for a GTL demonstration plant funded by Petrobras. This contract included the design, engineering, procurement, construction and testing of a large scale demonstration plant, which was required to prove all aspects needed for commercial application.

The CompactGTL team was supported by Genesis Oil and Gas Consultants Ltd during the process design stage of the contract. The SMR and FT reactors were manufactured by Sumitomo Precision Products Co, Ltd in Osaka, Japan and due to CompactGTL’s modular, small scale approach the complete set of GTL reactors were dispatched to Brazil by air freight. Zeton Inc. was awarded the EPC contract for the balance of plant and the GTL demonstration plant was constructed at Zeton’s facility in Burlington, Canada.

The GTL demonstration plant was successfully commissioned at Petrobras’ testing site in Brazil.

The Brazil plant demonstrates the world’s first fully integrated small scale GTL facility, at 200,000scf/d capacity, incorporating:

• Gas pre-treatment
• Pre-reforming
• Reforming
• Waste heat recovery
• Process steam generation
• Syngas compression
• Fischer Tropsch synthesis
• FT cooling water system
• Tail gas recycling

CompactGTL has ensured the commercial validity of the technology through collaboration with our strategic partners worldwide; establishing a supply chain to deliver commercial scale plants.