Ultra-Clean Transportation Fuels Plant Is Step Toward Reduced Vehicle Emissions; DC Metro Buses, Park Service Vehicles to Test Fuels

10/3/2003

From: Jeanne Lopatto, 202-586-4940, or Drew Malcomb, 202-586-5806, both of the U.S. Department of Energy

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 -- The Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the dedication of a facility that will pioneer a new generation of ultra-clean transportation fuels to significantly reduce tailpipe emissions from cars, trucks and buses.

Designed and constructed under the Ultra-Clean Fuels Program, managed by DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory, the newly constructed natural gas-to-liquids demonstration facility near Tulsa, Oklahoma is scheduled to begin production in early November. It will produce approximately 4,000 gallons of high-performance, sulfur free, environmentally-friendly transportation fuel per day from 1 million cubic feet of natural gas.

"This is a perfect illustration of how government and industry can work together to develop new technologies to meet the Nation's environmental objectives," said Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham. "As the Nation's automakers and fuel suppliers face tighter diesel emission standards in the next few years, the Energy Department is putting federal research dollars to work towards the goal of cleaner air."

Fuel from the facility will be tested in bus fleets operated by the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and the National Park Service in Denali, Alaska.

The plant was built under a cooperative agreement among DOE, Syntroleum Corp., Marathon Oil Co. and Integrated Concepts Research Corp. (ICRC). Plant construction costs are valued at over $40 million, of which DOE provided $16 million on a cost-share basis.

Other participants in the project include the Department of Defense, National Park Service, WMATA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan Automotive Laboratory, West Virginia University, University of Alaska at Fairbanks, and TIAX Inc. Daimler-Chrysler Corp. and Volkswagen of America are participating in the demonstration of engines and emission control systems calibrated to use the project's synthetic fuel.

The new facility will utilize the proprietary Syntroleum(r) Process to convert natural gas to transportation fuel. The plant consists or three primary components: an autothermal reformer that changes the natural gas into synthesis gas; a Fischer-Tropsch unit that converts the synthesis gas into synthetic crude oil; and a refining unit that upgrades the synthetic crude to finished synthetic diesel.

The new Oklahoma ultra-clean fuels facility comes on-line at a time diesel engine manufacturers and fuel suppliers are soon to be challenged with meeting a new set of stringent Environmental Protection Agency emissions standards. New regulations call for reducing the sulfur content in diesel fuel by 97 percent, providing for the cleanest-running heavy-duty trucks and buses in history.

By addressing diesel fuel and engines together as a single system, harmful emissions from diesel and gasoline heavy trucks and buses will be reduced up to 95 percent. Diesel engine manufacturers will have flexibility to meet the new standards through a phase-in approach between 2007 and 2010.

DOE's Ultra-Clean Fuels Program is developing a well-to-wheels analysis for an eventual substitution of conventional fuels with natural gas-derived ultra-clean fuels. In addition to studying the transportation uses, the program is examining the feasibility of using them in conventional and advanced stationary power plants suitable for rural Alaska. The production process and fuels also have advantages for military applications, including the ability to produce fuel closer to the location of military operations than has been possible in the past.

Other applications of the ultra-clean fuels include in jet engines, construction equipment, and railroad locomotives.