Investigation of H2 staging effects on CO conversion and product distribution for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis in a structured microchannel reactor

Laure Guillou (1, 2) , S. Paul (1, 2) , V. Le Courtois (1, 2)

1 UCCS - Unité de Catalyse et Chimie du Solide - UMR 8181
2 LCL - Laboratoire de catalyse de Lille - UMR 8010

The effect of H2 staging for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis over a 20 wt% Co/SiO2 catalyst in a 200 μL wall-coated channel microreactor was investigated. Some pre-experimental modeling was developed from a modified pseudo-homogeneous 1D reactor model using a pre-established rate form for CO consumption. The predicted CO conversion levels attained for various discrete staging policies were investigated and the results were used as a pre-selection tool. It was used to design a H2 staged reactor with 3 equally spaced injection ports. The experimental set-up was used to get conversion and product distribution data for various H2 distribution policies. The experimental conversions were in good agreement with the modeling. The tuning of H2 flow pattern over the 3 ports lowered the CO conversion and increased mainly C5-C9 selectivity. Once combined, these effects allowed to half the C1-4 yield without dramatically reducing the overall C5+ yield allowing a smarter use of H2. A non uniform increasing staging policy gave the best product distribution for C5+ increased production at 0.1 MPa and 180 °C.

Mots clés: Co catalyst; Fischer-Tropsch synthesis; Micro-structured reactor; Cross-flow reactor; Conversion simulation

Domaines: Catalyse

Laure Guillou, S. Paul, V. Le Courtois. Investigation of H2 staging effects on CO conversion and product distribution for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis in a structured microchannel reactor. Chemical Engineering Journal, 2007, 136 (issue 1), pp 66-76. ⟨10.1016/j.cej.2007.03.030⟩. ⟨hal-00141524⟩