Valorization of Shale Gas Condensate to Liquid Hydrocarbons through Catalytic Dehydrogenation and Oligomerization

Abstract

Abstract:The recent shale gas boom has transformed the energy landscape of the United States. Compared to natural gas, shale resources contain a substantial amount of condensate and natural gas liquids (NGLs). Many shale basin regions located in remote areas are lacking the infrastructure to distribute the extracted NGLs to other regions-particularly the Gulf Coast, a major gas processing region. Here we present a shale gas transformation process that converts NGLs in shale resources into liquid hydrocarbons, which are easier to transport from these remote basins than NGL or its constituents. This process involves catalytic dehydrogenation followed by catalytic oligomerization. Thermodynamic process analysis shows that this process has the potential to be more energy efficient than existing NGL-to-liquid fuel (NTL) technologies. In addition, our estimated payback period for this process is within the average lifetime of shale gas wells. The proposed process holds the promise to be an energy efficient and economically attractive step to valorize condensate in remote shale basins.

Effects of Ethene Pressure on the Deactivation of Ni‐Zeolites During Ethene Oligomerization at Sub‐ambient Temperatures

“…Alkene oligomerization is a key intermediate reaction in routes that upgrade light alkanes (C 1 –C 4 ), which can be sourced from shale gas, into transportation fuel‐range molecules [1] . Ni‐exchanged zeolites and Brønsted‐acidic zeolites are both commonly studied for alkene oligomerization, but Ni‐exchanged zeolites can more efficiently catalyze ethene oligomerization at lower temperatures and more selectively form linear alkene products (e. g., 1‐butene) [2–7] .…”

Elucidating the Nature of Active Sites and Fundamentals for their Creation in Zn-Containing ZrO2–Based Catalysts for Nonoxidative Propane Dehydrogenation

“…3 As a consequence and owing to the exploration of shale gas containing propane, its nonoxidative dehydrogenation directly to propene draws more and more attention to close the gap between propene supply and demand. 1,4 Commercially applied catalysts are supported materials on the basis of Al 2 O 3 with Pt or CrO x species responsible for propane dehydrogenation. 1 Due to the high price of platinum and environmental concerns about Cr(VI) compounds, numerous groups around the world focused their research on developing alternative catalysts with differently structured (from isolated sites to nanoclusters) supported species of various metal oxides, e.g.…”

Special Issue: Modeling and Simulation of Energy Systems

“…Ridha, Li, Gençer, Siirola, Miller, Ribeiro, and Agrawal [8] Shale gas condensate to oligomers and alkanes at the wellhead.…”