Potential utilisation of Indonesia's Natuna natural gas field via methane dry reforming to synthesis gas

The utilisation of high CO2 content natural gas, such as that found at Natu na island in Indonesia, using methane dry reforming with carbon dioxide to synthesis gas is demonstrated. Highly active catalysts employed for coke-fr ee, stable dry reforming include alumina-supported nickel, either as-prepar ed or doped with tungsten oxide or calcium oxide, and the supported group V III metals. No deactivation was observed for the duration of any of the exp eriments (>70 h), and the methane conversion and product distributions were close to those predicted from thermodynamic equilibrium calculations. It i s calculated that the application of dry reforming to the Natuna field alon e, combined with known gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology, could provide liqui d fuel to Indonesia for almost 18 years.