Secunda CTL is a
synthetic fuel plant owned by
Sasol at
Secunda, Mpumalanga in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
. It uses
coal liquefaction to produce
petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...
-like synthetic crude oil from
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal i ...
. The process used by Sasol is based on the
Fischer–Tropsch process. It is the largest
coal liquefaction plant and the largest single emitter of
greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the gases in the atmosphere that raise the surface temperature of planets such as the Earth. Unlike other gases, greenhouse gases absorb the radiations that a planet emits, resulting in the greenhouse effect. T ...
in the world.
Secunda CTL consists of two production units. The Sasol II unit was constructed in 1980 and the Sasol III unit in 1984.
[
] It has total production capacity of .
[
]
Greenhouse gas emissions
it is the world's largest single emitter of greenhouse gas, at 56.5 million tonnes a year. However, if
Afşin-Elbistan C power station in Turkey is built and operated at planned capacity it would emit over 60 million tonnes a year, though this project was stopped on the grounds of possible soil and air pollution.
Air Liquide acquired the 42,000 tons/day oxygen production in 2020, with plans for 900 MW power plants to reduce emissions.
Unique plant infrastructure
The Sasol III Steam Plant has a tall chimney built by
Concor, which consists of a high windshield and four reinforced concrete flues which together with a high temporary roof on the 4th flue make it the tenth
tallest structure, and the second tallest free-standing structure in Africa.
It remains the
tallest structure in South Africa, and the tallest free-standing structure in sub-Saharan Africa.
In Media
As a major component of South Africa's economy, Secunda was in turn a major target of the
African National Congress
The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...
during the
apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
era. Two ANC attacks (and their aftermath) were dramatized in the 2006 film ''
Catch a Fire''.
See also
*
Sasol
*
Coal gasification
In industrial chemistry, coal gasification is the process of producing syngas—a mixture consisting primarily of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (), carbon dioxide (), methane (), and water vapour ()—from coal and water, air and/or oxygen.
H ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Secunda Ctl
Petroleum in South Africa
Coal in South Africa
Chimneys in South Africa
Synthetic fuel facilities
Coal infrastructure
Energy infrastructure in South Africa
Economy of Mpumalanga
Secunda, Mpumalanga