Fischer-Tropsch synthesis in supercritical fluids. Final report

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) in the supercritical phase employing a commercial precipitated iron catalysts. As the supercritical fluid the authors used propane and n-hexane. The catalyst had a nominal composition of 100 Fe/5 Cu/4.2 K/25 SiO{sub 2} on mass basis and was used in a fixed bed reactor under both normal (conventional) and supercritical conditions. Experimental data were obtained at different temperatures (235 C, 250 C, and 260 C) and synthesis gas feed compositions (H{sub 2}/CO molar feed ratio of 0.67, 1.0 and 2.0) in both modes of operation under steady state conditions. The authors compared the performance of the precipitated iron catalyst in the supercritical phase, with the data obtained in gas phase (fixed bed reactor) and slurry phase (STS reactor). Comparisons were made in terms of bulk catalyst activity and various aspects of product selectivity (e.g. lumped hydrocarbon distribution and olefin content as a function of carbon number). In order to gain better understanding of the role of intraparticle mass transfer during FTS under conventional or supercritical conditions, the authors have measured diffusivities of representative hydrocarbon products in supercritical fluids, as well as their effective diffusion rates into the pores of catalyst at the reaction conditions. They constructed a Taylor dispersion apparatus to measure diffusion coefficients of hydrocarbon products of FTS in sub and supercritical ethane, propane, and hexane. In addition, they developed a tracer response technique to measure the effective diffusivities in the catalyst pores at the same conditions. Based on these results they have developed an equation for prediction of diffusion in supercritical fluids, which is based on the rough hard sphere theory.