Investigation of Fischer–Tropsch synthesis performance and its intrinsic reaction behavior in a bench scale slurry bubble column reactor

A bench scale slurry bubble column reactor (SBCR) with active-Fe based catalyst was developed for the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) reaction. Considering the highly exothermic reaction heat generated in the bench scale SBCR, an effective cooling system was devised consisting of a U-type dip tube submerged in the reactor. Also, the physical and chemical properties of the catalyst were controlled so as to achieve high activity for the CO conversion and liquid oil (C5+) production. Firstly, the FTS performance of the FeCuK/SiO2 catalyst in the SBCR under reaction conditions of 265 °C, 2.5 MPa, and H2/CO = 1 was investigated. The CO conversion and liquid oil (C5+) productivity in the reaction were 88.6% and 0.226 g/gcat-h, respectively, corresponding to a liquid oil (C5+) production rate of 0.03 bbl/day. To investigate the FTS reaction behavior in the bench scale SBCR, the effects of the space velocity and superficial velocity of the synthesis gas and reaction temperature were also studied. The liquid oil production rate increased up to 0.057 bbl/day with increasing space velocity from 2.61 to 3.92 SL/h-gFe and it was confirmed that the SBCR bench system developed in this research precisely simulated the FTS reaction behavior reported in the small scale slurry reactor.