Scale Up Strategy for Fischer Tropsch Bubble Column Slurry Reactor

The Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reaction, which was discovered in Germany nearly three-quarters of a century ago, has recently become a subject of renewed interest particularly in the context of the conversion of remote natural gas to liquid transportation fuels. For economic and logistics reasons, such conversions are best carried out in large-scale projects, so the capability of upscaling is an important consideration in the selection of reactors for synthesis gas generation, as well as for FT synthesis. It is now widely accepted that the bubble column slurry reactor is the best choice of reactor type for large-scale plants with capacities on the order of 40 000 bbl/day of liquid hydrocarbon product.1,2 Typical design and operating conditions of an FT slurry bubble column reactor are as follows: diameter 6-10 m, height 40 m, operating pressure 3-4 MPa, and temperature T 513-523 K. The superficial gas velocity U is in the range m/s depending the catalyst activity and the catalyst concentration in the slur