Liquid Fuels - Plan "B"

Tim Bradner of the Alaska Journal Commerce has this story (LINK) about Richard Peterson's, (President of Alaska Natural Gas-to-Liquids Co.) ideas on an Alaska Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) plant.

If lower 48 shale gas really has closed the door on arctic gas transportation projects (I'm not ready to believe that), then we need to get cracking on plan "B".

A GTL plan could include an in state gas line to feed it, and gas feeds to other existing industries (LNG and Ammonia), feeds to power generation and residential heating.

(LINK to March 2008 blog post on GTL)

The shale gas industry is young but it looks like shale gas can't be produced, on average, for less than $4/MMBTU (Henry Hub). I invite Mr. Peterson to present a comparative profitability analysis of a GTL plant in a range of $3/MMBTU to $10/MMBTU.

Bottom Line - Gas Line, LNG, or GTL - You choose, but if you snooze - you lose!

TransCanada Presentations

Here's a handful of Links to TransCanada presentations on the Alaska Gas Pipeline and other topics. I especially liked the shale gas presentation.

Alaska Gas Pipeline

Supply Options for the U.S. Northeast

North American Shale Gas Overview

Propane and Propane Accessories

Will propane wean Alaska off fuel oil? The Alaska Natural Gas Development Authority thinks so. Here's a link to a presentation on the scope of the project and the potential benefits (LINK).

Does it make sense? Sure - especially if displacement of high dollar naptha at GVEA can base load the project while additional users build infrastructure and convert to propane.

It's also makes even more sense at higher oil prices (and by the way the April 2010 crude futures are trading in the $80/bbl range).

It also makes sense to begin adapting local energy markets for natural gas liquids (NGL) that will be produced when the Alaska Gas Pipeline comes on line.

Cook Inlet Syngas

Cook Inlet Region Inc (CIRI) has proposed an Underground coal gasification (UCG) project (LINK to project description).

In a nut shell the process carries air and steam to the coal where the coal is partially oxidized to form syngas. Here's the chemistry (C=Carbon, from the coal, H2O (water / steam), O2 (oxygen), and H2 (Hydrogen):

C + H2O → CO + H2
C + O2 → CO2
CO2 + C → 2CO

The CO (carbon monoxide) and H2 (hydrogen) are gaseous fuels well suited for combustion in a turbine for electric power production. There are some other materials (ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbons) co-produced with the syngas.

Best of all the energy content of the coal can be extracted without the environmental impact of traditional coal mining.

I look forward to hearing more details (capital cost, $/MW, etc). It's always good to hear about innovation and use of stranded energy resources.

Alaska Gas Pipeline - Lasar Radar Mapping

If you would like to read something non-political about the Alaska Gas Pipeline today is your lucky day. Rob Stapleton of the Alaska Journal of Commerce posted this nice article about Lasar Radar Mapping.

The background information comes from the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects Office of the Federal Coordinator (OFC) website. The OFC site includes a pdf file of a white paper titled LiDAR for Terrain Mapping on the Alaska Pipeline Corridor.

It's good to finally see some details on HOW we are going to build it instead of the perpetual discussion of IF we are going to build it.