Shell Lubricants is making the most of the growth in Africa’s power sector and sees the continent as a new frontier for its gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology in transformers and turbine oils.

“We see tremendous potential for the right kind of oil among utilities in Africa, particularly as GTL-technology-based oils become an increasingly important part of the energy mix on the continent,” says Shell Global Solutions global technology manager Dr Peter Smith.

The technology is new to Africa but Smith believes the time is right to introduce its lubricants into Africa. He says Eskom is working on evaluating and approving the company’s transformer oils, as well as exploring opportunities to use the GTL technology in its turbines.

“While there may be a glut of crude oil now, it won’t always be that way. GTL technology gives us a long-term approach to meet future needs and requirements.”

Shell has worked with universities, technical institutes and industry since the 1970s to fine-tune its oils. The transformer oils have been designed to help transformers operate under high stresses for longer with a lower rate of degradation. They are sulphur-free and play a key role in cooling the transformer.

“If the system is running cooler, that means stress on the oil is lessened and the equipment life is extended,” says Smith.

Shell commercialised GTL-technology-based transformer oils at the end of 2012, with GTL oil products for turbines launched at the end of 2014.

“We’ve been working with universities such as the University of Manchester on transformer oils. It’s a world expert in the field. Working with researchers has added to our internal knowledge and understanding of the chemistry and physics of our oil – not only what’s going on in the oil, but the way it interacts with the equipment it services,” Smith tells Engineering News Online.

Research into Shell GTL technology started in the 1970s, synthesising around 1g a day. Manufacturing was later scaled up to a drum a day. In the 1990s, the world’s first commercial large-scale GTL fuel/wax plant was launched in Malaysia. 

In 2011, Shell, as part of a joint venture with the Qatar government, completed the world’s largest commercial GTL production facility. Qatar has some of the world’s largest natural gas reserves.

The Qatari plant is able to produce over 140 000 bbl/d of GTL products.

“We’ve undertaken robust performance tests internally and with customers before launching the products and I can confirm we’ve had no field issues, with millions of litres in thousands of transformers worldwide. If you use a better oil, the maintenance engineer can go home in the evenings and weekends and ‘sleep easy’. He’s not thinking his turbine is going to stop or his transformer is going to fail due to oil-related issues.”