Experimental Study of the Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis Using Nitrogen-Containing Syngas and Variable Pressure

Abstract

The effect of syngas dilution with nitrogen on the activity, selectivity and capacity of the Fischer–Tropsch reactor with a fixed granulated catalyst bed was studied during the synthesis at the integrated pilot plant for conversion of natural gas to syncrude. Experimental data were obtained at different nitrogen content in syngas: up to 2, 50 and 70 %. The analysis of experimental data shows that the dilution of syngas increases the selectivity to C₅₊ and decreases the selectivity to methane. The decrease in the reactor capacity observed upon dilution of syngas can be compensated by increasing the syngas flow rate. A decrease in the pressure of the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis from 2 to 1.5 and 1.0 MPa was shown to exert a detrimental effect on the catalytic performance of the process carried out with a twofold dilution of syngas at its hourly space velocity of 4000 h^–1.