MODELING TECHNIQUES FOR THE IN SITU FISCHER_TROPSCH’S FIXED BED REACTOR BEHAVIOR IN GAS PHASE AND SUPERCRITICAL PHASE REACTION MEDIA

摘要

The primary commercial process of Gas-to-Liquid technology for the production of liquid hydrocarbons and value-added chemicals involves the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) process. Even though the FTS technology has existed for the past 85-years, it is still facing several fundamental challenges attributed to a lack of essential knowledge about the in situ behavior of the reactive flow profile and its heat and mass transfer limitations. In addition to this, there are still several unresolved mysteries in relation to the complex nature of the reaction. This study is aimed at developing a modeling technqiues to qualiatiavely and qaunaitively identify the role of reaction media on the in situ reaction behavior of FTS fixed-bed reactor in gas phase and in the supercritical phase. The latter is a unique reaction medium that leverages certain advantages of the current commercial technologies1. Our investigations are focused on modeling several cases followed by experimental condirmation of these models and finally visualization of the FTS reactive fluid flow pattern utilizing both Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).