 Shell built the world’s first medium-scale, commercial low-temperature Fischer-Tropsch GTL plant at Bintulu, Malaysia. The plant, opened in 1993, is equivalent to the size of a small refinery and produces 12,500 barrels per day (recently de-bottlenecked to be built up to a capacity of 14,700 barrels per day in 2005) of high quality liquid products. With over 30 years of research in this field, Shell developed the proprietary synthesis catalyst used at Bintulu, which is integral to the GTL production process. Building on this operating experience, Shell has developed a new second-generation catalyst, which markedly increases process productivity. This, combined with economies-of-scale, has resulted in a significant reduction of unit capex in the second-generation Shell GTL technology. This makes Shell ideally positioned to develop the next generation of world-scale GTL plants.
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