Development of a Kinetic Model for Supercritical Fluids Fischer−Tropsch Synthesis

Abstract

Kinetic models for Fischer−Tropsch synthesis (FTS) were derived to express the reaction behavior in either conventional reaction media (gas-phase) or nonconventional media (near-critical and supercritical solvent media). These models we developed from experimental data generated from a commercial alumina supported cobalt catalyst (15% Co/Al2O3) in a fixed bed reactor. Two models were developed: the first one assumes ideal gas phase behavior for the gas phase reaction and uses partial pressures to express reactant and product concentrations in rate expressions while the second model accounts for the nonideal behavior of the reaction mixture under elevated pressures via the utilization of fugacity parameters and fugacity coefficients. The fugacity coefficients were estimated from a modified Redlich−Kwong−Soave equation of state. A comparison was conducted between the estimated kinetic parameters from the fugacity-based kinetic model and the partial pressure based kinetic model. The heat of adsorption of car...