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Producing water in the desert
Water is a resource that is hard to come by in Qatar’s desert climate. The Pearl GTL plant will produce at least as much water as gas-to-liquids products.
The chemical reaction that occurs when synthesis gas is passed over catalysts in a gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant produces water as well as the building blocks for GTL products.
“When fully operational the amount that Pearl GTL will produce makes it possible to run the plant without drawing on Qatar’s scarce natural fresh water resources or on seawater,” says Rob Overtoom, Technology Manager on the Pearl GTL project.
Over the longer term Shell aims to use every drop of this water as part of our approach to not discharge any liquids from the plant. Pearl GTL’s industrial water processing plant is the world’s largest for the recovering, treating and re-using of industrial process water. With a capacity to treat 280,000 barrels of water a day, Pearl GTL’s water treatment plant is comparable to a plant for a town of 140,000 people.
After cleaning the industrial water by removing trace metals, hydrocarbons and any particles, most water is used for cooling by evaporation and for steam systems. Some of it will be used for planting bushes, shrubs or trees at the plant.
