Senior Design II

Spring 2013
Mentor: Dan Rusinak
Group Presentation #1
Team Foxtrot
Ali, Mudassir
Drake, Stephen
Meaux, Kevin (Team Leader)
Sieve, Brandon
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FT was designed in 1920 by Franz Fischer and Hanz

Tropsch in Germany.
The Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis is a commercially
proven method for converting synthesis gas (a
mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide) to a broad
range of hydrocarbon

The feed stock is Syngas (CO +H2)

The sources of syngas are

Coal

Biomass
Natural Gas

CO + H2

Fisher Tropsch

FTL

are neat fuels with no sulfur content and no aromatics.

Can be used in various fuel blends with conventional diesel.
FTL can power today's engines at dramatically reduced emission levels without sacrificing
performance.
Actually FTL improvises the engines efficiency and a cetane rating of 72 can be attained.
They can also be transported with todays infrastructure

Temp: 220-250 C
Feed Stock: CO+H2
Targeted intermediates and products: Wax; Diesel and
Jet oil
Reactor: Slurry Bubble Column Reactor
Catalyst: Precipitated Fe promoted with K

Most important FTL plants

Geboren te Stellenbosch, Zuid-Afrika

ASTM D 975 will be the target product of the FTL plant.

It has a cetane rating of 40 and no specific gravity specification since we are in the US.

Our mission
Producing transportation liquids such as Diesel and Jet fuel.

Increasing trend

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122660972377725619.html
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=emd_epd2d_pte_nus_dpg&f=a

10

Commercial FTL Production

Increasing trend

http://www.airlines.org/Pages/Aviation-Fuels---Needs,-Challenges-and-Alternatives.aspx
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EER_EPJK_PF4_RGC_DPG&f=D

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12

Environmental Review

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Competing Processes
Fe catalyst

Increasing
trend

http://crtc.caer.uky.edu/ft6/ft_6.htm
http://ir.sxicc.ac.cn/bitstream/0/2142/1/1358-1364.pdf

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Competing Processes
Cobalt catalyst

15

Co Catalyst

Longer deactivation time and

longer life time due to greater
resistance to re-oxidation by
water
Provides a good and limited
distribution of desirable
hydrocarbons.
Promotes water formation and
also methane formation which
is what we dont want.
Used at low operation
temperatures.
Cost is expensive.
Works best on a 2:1 ratio.

Fe Catalyst

Longer life time when compared to

Co and better selectivity when
promoted with K.
Provides a wide distribution of
desirable; 58.3% diesel yield and is
better for wax production.
Promotes the formation of CO2 and
reduces methane formation by 30%
therefore the water gas shift
reaction.
Promotes up to 80% CO conversion.
Used at high and low operation
temperatures.
Costs is much cheaper than Co.
Typical ratio of 3:1 but a ratio of 2:1
can be used.

16

Why Fe catalyst?
To reduce the CH4 production
Cheaper than Cobalt
Better life

Catalysis Research Unit, Department

of Chemical Engineering, University
of Cape Town, Private Bag,
Rondebosch 7701, South Africa

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FischerTropsch Refining, First Edition. Arno de Klerk

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HTFT

The distillate and residue fractions from

HTFT syncrude can be hydroprocessed
to produce an on-specification diesel
fuel that meets both the minimum
density and cetane number
requirements[3], but since we are in the
US we dont need to meet the minimum
density requirements.
There is a high carbon cost associated
with the HTFT light hydrocarbons and
the HTFT aqueous product[3].
Gives a relatively lower cetane number
of 47
All of the scenarios highlighted the
constrained nature of diesel fuel
production, as well as the negative
impact that it has on the blending
flexibility of other fuel types.

LTFT

No minimum density specification to be met

which serves our criteria fully as we are in the
US.
An acceptable cetane rating of 72 can be met.
Clearly LTFT is the way to go

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Competing Processes

http://alfin2300.blogspot.com/2010/05/award-winning-microchannel-fischer.html
http://www.axens.net/document/19/conversion-of-syngas-to-diesel---article-ptq/english.html

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Micro Channel Reactor (The future)

21

Ebullating Bed reactor/ H-star reactor

22

Bed Column reactors

Slurry Bed Column reactor:
PROS
Easy Isothermal operation in the reactor
Flexible when regenerating (oxidizing environment) / rejuvenating catalyst
(reducing environment)
Lower modeling cost
CONS
Causes to produce more light ends and lighter hydrocarbons because of short
circuiting of the reaction
Solution:
Have 2 SBCR is series or increase the size of the reactor, so the production of light
ends is reduced.
Ebullating Bed reactor/ hydrotreator:
2 or more cstrs in series
Larger catalysts are used
Catalyst can therefor withstand more agitation
Primarily used to obtain methanol from syngas
Eliminates the pressure drop problem
Fixed Bed Column reactor:
This technology requires heavy work up for raw materials and provides a limited
selectivity of transportation fuels and specialty chemicals
Fluidized Bed Column reactor:
Simple scale up, provides easy separation of solids and liquids but almost
impossible for easy catalyst rejuvenation and regeneration.

Micro-Channel Reactor
PROS
Micro channel reactors are compact reactors that
have channels with diameters in the millimeter

range[2]
they greatly intensify chemical reactions,
enabling them to occur at rates 10 to 1000 times
faster than in conventional systems.[2]
Excellent tool for small scale distribution.
Achieved a 70% conversion per single pass as
compared to 50 % conversion pass of the
conventional units.
CONS
The tubes can get easily clogged
Catalyst and reactor costs are high
Loading and unloading the catalyst is a hassle

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Catalyst
Rejuvenation/
Regeneration

SBCR
with
Fe/k
Catalyst

Aqueous

Waste
water

C3C10
Oligomerization

C5-C10
Distillation unit

C22
+
C11-C22

> C23
Exhaustive Hydrocracker

5000bpd
LPG
Jet fuel
diesel
Motor
Gasoline

Syngas (2:1)
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Diesel
Product Weight Fraction (1)
Density
Weighted Density
Average Density (kg/L)
Volume of a barrel (L)
Mass per barrel (kg)
bbl/day
kg/day
Product average Carbon number
Atomic Mass C (Kg/kmol)
Atomic Mass H
molar mass cnH2n+2
Weighted Molar Mass
Average Molar Mass
Weighted Average Carbon number
Overall Average Carbon number
Mass of 13.385 C atoms
Mass Fraction C in overall Products
Kg Carbon/day
Kg Moles Carbon/day
Kg Moles of CO
ratio CO:H2
Kg Moles of H2/day
lb moles of CO/day
lb moles of H2
lb/lbmol CO
lb/lbmol H2
lb of CO/day
lb of H2/day
lb methane per day used

Gas
0.6
0.832
0.4992

Jet
0.138
0.717
0.098946

LPG
0.137
0.817
0.111929

0.1
0.533
0.0533
0.763375
158.99
121.3689913
5000
606844.9563

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13

3
12
1

242
145.2

116
16.008

186
25.482

46
4.6
191.29

10.2

1.104

1.781

0.3
13.385
160.62
0.839667521
509547.9998
42462.33331
42462.33331
2
84924.66663
93417.13329
186834.2666
28
2
2615679.732
373668.5332
1494674.133
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Relevant Stoichiometry
Syngas production :
CH4 + H2O CO + 3H2
-Delta_Hrx @298K = 206 kJ/mol
Riedels number :

Alpha: Wn/n = (1 )2n1 ;

-Wn is the weight fraction of hydrocarbon molecules
containing n carbon atoms. is the chain growth
probability or the probability that a molecule will
continue reacting to form a longer chain.
-Alpha numbers above about 0.9 are, in general,
representation of wax producing processes

Alpha distribution
LPG --C2-C4;
Naptha-- C5-C8;
Jet-- C9-C14;
Diesel-- C14-C20;
Wax-- C19 and so on

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27

The Riedels or the SN number helps in manipulation of the H2: CO ratio.

Since we need a 2:1 internal ratio, we can still accept a greater ratio and still
correct the ratio through the RWGS CO2 produced.

CO2 consumed H2 and produces CO and the ratio

comes down to 2.

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The wastewater will be pretreated with caustic soda to lower the pH before being sent to
the water treatment plant.
We can use the CO2 produced by other groups and produce CO
The Naptha produced may be sell/transferred to the gas treatment plant
The Methane build up (Tail gas) produced is going to be syngas plant as a feed stock or the
CHP plant to produce energy thus can be used as fuel gas.
Upgrade the crude olefins and transfer to the MTO plant
Left over H2 and CO will be internally recycled to obtain high superficial velocity in the
SBCR or can be sent back to the syngas plant
LPG would be transferred to the plant that is processing Natural Gas as NGL is Naptha

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Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Achtergracht 166,

1018 WV Amsterdam, Netherlands
Faculty of Chemical Technology and Materials Science, Delft University of Technology,
Julianalaan 136, 2628 BL Delft, Netherlands
Velocys, Inc., 7950 Corporate Blvd, Plain City, Ohio 43064, USA (Registered in the State of
Delaware, USA). Velocys, Inc. is a subsidiary of Oxford Catalysts Group PLC
ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company
Journal of Chemical technology and Biotechnology ,2001 society of chemical industry
Axens,2011
Chevron Products Company, 2007
Rentech Inc, 2013
Stoichiometry, B I Bhatt
Applied Catalysis,Vol 186, oct 1999
FischerTropsch Refining, First Edition. Arno de Klerk.
FUNDAMENTALS OF INDUSTRIAL CATALYTIC PROCESSES, second edition
Fuel Processing Technology, Vol 64, May 2000

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Thank you kindly! , Questions please?

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