THE NEW-ZEALAND GAS-TO-GASOLINE PLANT - AN ENGINEERING TOUR-DE-FORCE

The New Zealand Gas-to-Gasoline plant has completed its 6th year of continuous operation. The plant converts natural gas to methanol, which is then converted to premium gasoline using the Mobil MTG (Methanol-to-Gasoline) Process. Widely acclaimed as the first major advance in synfuels technology since the Fischer-Tropsch Process, the MTG Process was conceived and developed in the 1970's in response to the Arab oil embargo. Engineers responsible for the design and construction of the New Zealand plant faced a unique set of problems, from archaeological to seismological, from environmental to logistical, in addition to the technical challenges of realizing totally new technology. How these issues were met and resolved is the main theme of this paper.