The plant, at Teesside in the UK, commissioned and started up the Fischer Tropsch reactor using syngas produced in the syngas reactor to produce its first hydrocarbon liquids.

The test run success follows that of the syngas reactor, which has been operating successfully at a range of operating pressures, showing minimal loss of conversion at higher pressures.

Gas-to-liquids is a two-step petrochemical process to convert natural gas into liquid hydrocarbons such as synthetic crude.

Gas2's GTL process is simplified system, compared to other GTL processes, with one potential advantage being the elimination of the intermediate compression stage between syngas and FT reactors. That compression stage is an expensive part of other systems.

The emission of that step could play a part in driving down capital and operating costs.

Operating syngas reactors at higher pressures with minimal loss of conversion is key to intermediate compression elimination.

Gas2 managing director Mike Fleming said the results were an important step towards eventually commercialising the company's GTL technology.

"We are developing a modular system that will offer significant economic and environmental advantages with higher hydrocarbon conversion rates than existing technologies," he said.

"Liquid production matched our expectations at this stage and significantly advances our development program.

"It underlines our belief that Gas2 has a technology with the potential to disrupt the GTL market and create significant long-term value for our commercial partners and future clients."

The next steps are to optimise the syngas reactor design and run further parametric tests on the FT reactors in preparation for scale-up engineering.