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ExxonMobil's Methanol to Gasoline (MTG) Technology Selected for Synthesis Energy Systems' Coal to Liquids Projects

Posted on: Monday, 29 September 2008, 18:00 CDT

ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company (EMRE) today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Synthesis Energy Systems (SES) that provides SES the option to execute up to fifteen Methanol to Gasoline technology licenses in their global operations. SES has chosen to assign the first license to a project near Benwood, West Virginia.

This approximate 7,000 barrel per calendar day unit will be based on commercially proven MTG technology which incorporates improvements since the technology was originally commercialized by ExxonMobil 20 years ago in New Zealand.

MTG converts crude methanol directly to low sulfur, low benzene gasoline that can be sold directly or blended with conventional refinery gasoline. Although the original application of the MTG technology processed methanol from natural gas, the same technology can be used for methanol from other sources such as coal, petcoke or biomass. The SES projects will gasify the coal, convert the synthetic gas to methanol, and then convert the methanol to gasoline via the MTG process. Conversion of coal to gasoline through gasification and methanol conversion is one way to significantly reduce the potential pollutants from coal, including the reduction of SOx emissions and the capture of CO2.

EMRE is the research and engineering arm of Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM), a leading global oil, natural gas, and petrochemicals company whose subsidiaries have operations in nearly 200 countries and territories. Additional information regarding ExxonMobil and technologies it licenses can be found at http://www.exxonmobil.com/refiningtechnologies.

SES is focused on converting coal to higher priced products by investment in a project with a short construction schedule at a lower capital cost, and a closer proximity to a coal sources. More information can be found at http://www.synthesisenergy.com.

Source: Business Wire

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