SEPARATION OF FISCHER-TROPSCH WAX PRODUCTS FROM ULTRAFINE IRON CATALYST PARTICLES

Abstract

In this reporting period, a fundamental filtration study was continued to investigate the separation of Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) liquids from iron-based catalyst particles. The overall focus of the program is with slurry-phase FTS in slurry bubble column reactor systems. Hydrocarbon products must be separated from catalyst particles before being removed from the reactor system. An efficient wax product/catalyst separation system is a key factor for optimizing operating costs for iron-based slurry-phase FTS. Previous work has focused on catalyst particle attrition and the formation of ultra-fine iron carbide and/or carbon particles. With the current study, we are investigating how the filtration properties are affected by these chemical and physical changes of the catalyst slurry during activation/synthesis. In this reporting period, a series of crossflow filtration experiments were initiated to study the effect of olefins and oxygenates on the filtration flux and membrane performance. Iron-based FTS reactor waxes contain a significant amount of oxygenates, depending on the catalyst formulation and operating conditions. Mono-olefins and aliphatic alcohols were doped into an activated iron catalyst slurry (with Polywax) to test their influence on filtration properties. The olefins were varied from 5 to 25 wt% and oxygenates from 6 to 17 wt% to simulate a range of reactor slurries reported in the literature. The addition of an alcohol (1-dodecanol) was found to decrease the permeation rate while the olefin added (1-hexadecene) had no effect on the permeation rate. A passive flux maintenance technique was tested that can temporarily increase the permeate rate for 24 hours.