Australia has large undeveloped reserves of natural gas that are remote from major areas of consumption. By converting the gas to methanol, an easily transportable liquid, the economic and environmental benefits of natural gas will be more readily available.

The purpose of the plant is to test the methanol conversion technology known as Leading Concept Methanol (LCM) for offshore use. Such an application would be on board a floating production facility called a Methanol Floating Production, Storage and Offloading Vessel (MFPSO).

The key criteria for an MFPSO are:

• Safety and operability
• Reliability
• Compact design
• Weight compatible with vessel design
• Insensitivity to motion effects
• Minimised effluents
• Minimised utility requirements
• Low manpower requirements
• Integration with FSPO hydrocarbon production

Methanol technology based on conventional steam reforming is inappropriate for an MFPSO because of the size and safety implications of the fired reformer. A number of other aspects associated with conventional plants have to be addressed. These include the amount of water required in the process (all water requirements have to be generated from sea water) and the effect of motion on the very large distillation columns.

Years of research and development have eliminated any technical hurdle envisaged in preventing the LCM technology from being used for the first MFPSO.

Coogee Chemicals and Mogal Marine (in conjunction with Mitsubishi Corporation) own the intellectual property for an MFPSO and are actively pursuing opportunities for the commercial application of this technology to offshore stranded gas fields.