Considering the patented technology dates to 1979, it's still taking too long.
I revisited the linked article.
Quote:
In this design, methanol is first dehydrated over an amorphous alumina catalyst to an equilibrium mixture of di-methyl ether (DME), methanol and water. The DME reactor effluent is introduced into the MTG reactors, wherein methanol and DME are completely dehydrated by a proprietary catalyst forming light olefins and water. At the MTG reactor conditions, light olefins oligomerize into higher olefins, which combine through various reaction paths into paraffins, naphthenes, and methylated aromatics. The shape-selective MTG catalyst limits the hydrocarbon synthesis reactions to about C₁₁.
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So.... there ya go. They 'oligomerize'.
Quote:
ExxonMobil commercialized the first gas-to-gasoline plant in New Zealand in 1985. The New Zealand plant produced 14,500 BPD of gasoline and was operated by the New Zealand Synthetic Fuels Corporation, a joint venture between the government of New Zealand and ExxonMobil, until 1995. Operation of the first coal-to-gasoline plant via 2nd generation MTG technology began in 2009 in China by Jincheng Antracite Mining Group (JAMG). This 2,500 BPD gasoline plant began operations in 2009 and successfully demonstrated the coal-to-gasoline concept.
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They made an agreement to develop a lower cost production method in 2015, with Sinopec Engineering Group (SEG)