Gas monetization company Primus Green Energy Inc. has commissioned a Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) study together with the IHI E&C International Corporation as the next step in creating a new natural gas-to-gasoline plant.
The plant would be based in Houston, Texas, where Primus’s headquarters is located. It also builds on a demonstration plant Primus built in New Jersey — a plant that showed both methanol and gasoline could be successfully produced there. The whole structure will be built around Primus’s patented STG+ technology, which operates as a gas-to-methanol system. When finished, the partners intend for the new plant to consume 28 MMcf/d of natural gas and from it produce 2,800 bbl/d of gasoline.
“Primus is pleased to join forces with a strategic, large partner with significant experience in natural gas derivatives,” Steven Murray, CEO of Primus, said. “We expect to follow this first project with several others in North America and prospectively worldwide.”
The FEED study, which is expected to be completed by mid-2020, should yield a rough investment cost for the project and understand its technical requirements. Such pre-project planning studies tend to form the basis of a fix bid quote and operate as the design basis for the project.
“As more and more companies focus on climate change and ESG, in general, we feel the time to apply this technology has never been better,” Murray said. “Primus’s strategy is to build practical environmental solutions for natural gas that is currently being flared or otherwise wasted. This project enables us to commercially demonstrate our technology while opening the door for a range of future projects that support sustainability and zero routine flaring initiatives.”