Shell is active in Fisher-Tropsch catalysis research for more than 40 years. The first GTL/XTL pilot plant was commissioned in 1983. A new pilot plant – built and commissioned when Shell moved to the new Research Centre in Amsterdam in 2009 – has been instrumental to the development of catalysts and GTL process, in addition to supporting commercial projects such as SMDS in Malaysia in 1993, and Pearl GTL in Qatar in 2011. Since 2009, the GTL pilot plant has being used to for process improvement and the development of new and improved catalysts for the Fisher-Tropsch process.
In recent years, the pilot plant has been used to demonstrate that sustainable synthetic kerosine can be produced in high yields on the basis of CO2, water and renewable power. In 2021, 500 liters of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in the pilot plant as fuel for a commercial KLM aircraft (For more information: https://www.shell.nl/). Today, the GTL pilot plant is mostly used to assist process development of XTL routes for the conversion of municipal and biomass waste, CO2 and renewable power into sustainable fuels.
During the site visit, conference participants will be able to visit Shell’s R&D center as well as the GTL pilot facility for exchanges with Shell’s experts.