Simulation of Industrial Fischer Tropsch Synthesis Slurry Bed Reactors
1. Coal to Oil Branch Company, Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group, Yinchuan 750411, China;
2. National Institute of Clean and-Low-Carbon Energy, Beijing 102209, China
Abstract As the key equipment of the coal indirect liquefaction plant, the performance of the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis reactors had a significant impact on the economics of the plant. Based on the double-bubble axial diffusion model coupled with tail gas circulation, a simulation software for slurry bed reactors was developed and applied to analyze and calculate the F-T synthesis reactor in a 4 million tons/year coal indirect liquefaction plant (Shenhua Ningmei Group). The data such as syngas conversion rate and product selectivity were obtained. The calculation results were consistent with the operational data, which verified the rationality of the reactor model. On this basis, the influence of the model on the hydrogen/carbon ratio of fresh syngas was investigated. The results showed that with the increase of hydrogen/carbon ratio, the total conversion of CO was not significant, while the total conversion rate of H2 was significantly decreased. Meanwhile, the selectivity of CO2 decreased while that of CH4 increased and the oil production rate per unit of syngas decreased, which means that the increase in the hydrogen/carbon suppressed the occurrence of the water-gas shift reaction and caused more light products.
