Primus Green Energy is providing financial support to engineers at Princeton University to support research on synthetic fuels including assessments of various gas-to-liquids (GTL) technologies for sustainability and economic viability. Primus’ STG+ technology converts syngas derived from natural gas and/or biomass into drop-in high-octane gasoline and jet fuel with industry-leading process efficiencies. According to the company, the fuels produced from the Primus STG+ technology are very low in sulfur and benzene compared to fuels produced from petroleum, and they can be used directly in vehicle engines as a component of standard fuel formulas and transported via the existing fuel delivery infrastructure.

“Primus is always looking for opportunities to support academic research on issues that impact our business and our commercialization efforts,” said George Boyajian, vice president of business development at Primus Green Energy. “Chris Floudas is one of the premier experts in the field of gas-to-liquids technologies, and we believe that his research will play a key role in identifying important developments and financial differentiators among GTL technologies, especially as they relate to our STG+ technology.”

The work at Princeton University will be conducted in the laboratories of Professor Christodoulos Floudas, Ph.D. Floudas is an expert in chemical process systems engineering, with a specific emphasis on process synthesis and design, interaction of process design and control and process operations.

“Primus’ STG+ platform is a next-generation gas-to-liquids technology that has the potential to have a significant impact on process efficiency standards and economic viability in the alternative fuels industry,” said Floudas, Princeton’s Stephen C. Macaleer ’63 Professor in Engineering and Applied Science. “As part of my research, I will be comparing STG+ to other leading GTL platforms against a variety of metrics, including financial, technical and sustainability.”

Primus Green Energy estimates that the cost of production for its fuels will be competitive with petroleum-based fuels when crude oil is trading at $65 per barrel (oil is currently trading at approximately $95 per barrel). The company is nearing completion of its demonstration plant, which is expected to reach mechanical completion in Q2 2013, and expects to break ground on its first commercial plant in the first half of 2014.