A Study on Conceptual Design of Fischer-Tropsch Reactors in GTL Applications

GTL (Gas-to-liquid) process is becoming an attractive technology which can produce liquid petroleum products using natural gas. As a part of preliminary design of GTL-FPSO application, process simulation analysis for conceptual design and optimization of reformers and F-T reactors are performed in GTL-FPSO applications by implementing the user made subroutine programs of kinetic equations into PRO/II PROVISION simulator. As for the F-T reactors, Plug Flow Reactor (PFR) model is used with detailed kinetics equations over two different Fe based catalysts (Fe-Cu-K and K/Fe-Cu-Al). Dry reformer is also studied with Plug Flow Reactor (PFR) model. In this study, simulation results are compared with available experimental data and found well agreed with experimental data for both reformer and FT reactor. The Peng-Robinson equation of state is also used to calculate the vapor phase non-idealities and vapor-liquid equilibrium. The optimum operating conditions and process simulation analysis are also presented