FISCHER-TROPSCH FUELS PRODUCTION AND DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

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This project has two primary purposes: (1) Build a small-footprint (SFP) fuel production plant to prove the feasibility of this relatively transportable technology on an intermediate scale (i.e. between laboratory-bench and commercial capacity) and produce as much as 150,000 gallons of hydrogen-saturated Fischer-Tropsch (FT) diesel fuel; and (2) Use the virtually sulfur-free fuel produced to demonstrate (over a period of at least six months) that it can not only be used in existing diesel engines, but that it also can enable significantly increased effectiveness and life of the next-generation exhaust-after-treatment emission control systems that are currently under development and that will be required for future diesel engines. Furthermore, a well-to-wheels economic analysis will be performed to characterize the overall costs and benefits that would be associated with the actual commercial production, distribution and use of such FT diesel fuel made by the process under consideration, from the currently underutilized (or entirely un-used) energy resources targeted, primarily natural gas that is stranded, sub-quality, off-shore, etc. During the first year of the project, which is the subject of this report, there have been two significant areas of progress: (1) Most of the preparatory work required to build the SFP fuel-production plant has been completed, and (2) Relationships have been established, and necessary project coordination has been started, with the half dozen project-partner organizations that will have a role in the fuel demonstration and evaluation phase of the project. Additional project tasks directly related to the State of Alaska have also been added to the project. These include: A study of underutilized potential Alaska energy resources that could contribute to domestic diesel and distillate fuel production by providing input energy for future commercial-size SFP fuel production plants; Demonstration of the use of the product fuel in a heavy-duty diesel vehicle during the Alaska winter; a comparative study of the cold-starting characteristics of FT and conventional diesel fuel; and demonstration of the use of the fuel to generate electricity for rural Alaskan villages using both a diesel generator set, and a reformer-equipped fuel cell.