An investigation into supercritical fluids as a reaction media for Fischer Tropsch synthesis Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • The influence of temperature, pressure, H2/CO ratio, synthesis gas rate, and supercritical fluid media (pentanes and hexanes) on conversion and product distribution was studied. The supercritical fluid media showed comparable conversion to the gas phase, higher selectivity in the middle distillate fraction (gasoline and diesel), and lower methane and other light hydrocarbon selectivity. To explain this increase in selectivity an enhanced olefin reincorporation model has been proposed. The influence of catalyst surface characteristics on the FTS reaction was evaluated. Three cobalt catalysts were investigated: 15% cobalt on high surface area silica, 15% cobalt on low surface area silica, and 15% cobalt on alumina. These catalysts performed differently in the gas phase, but nearly identically in the supercritical phase. The supercritical hexane reaction media alleviates intra-particle transport limitations. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the AIChE Annual Meeting (San Francisco, CA 11/12-17/2006).

published proceedings

  • AIChE Annual Meeting, Conference Proceedings

author list (cited authors)

  • Durham, J. E., Elbashir, N. O., & Roberts, C. B.

complete list of authors

  • Durham, JE||Elbashir, NO||Roberts, CB

publication date

  • December 2006