TITLE: Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis in Slurry Reactor Systems. Quarterly Report, November 1, 1983-January 31, 1984.

AUTHOR: C. N. Satterfield;   T. Bartos;   R. Hanlon;   D. Matsumoto;   H. Stenger.

INST.  AUTHOR: Massachusetts Inst. of Tech., Cambridge.

SPONSOR: Department of Energy, Washington, DC.

LANGUAGE: English

PUB.  TYPE: Technical Report

PUB.  COUNTRY: United States

SOURCE: Department of Energy [DE],  1984,  26p.

NTIS REPORT NO.: DE84006652

ABSTRACT:

We have now completed and partially analyzed a series of studies on the effects of the nature of the liquid present on activity and seletivity of the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, and the effects of partial poisoning of the catalyst by H sub 2 S or dibenzothiophene (DBT). We discovered that the presence of a small amount of DBT (97.8 mg S per g of Fe in the catalyst) cut methane formation nearly in half under a set of reaction conditions of commercial importance (263 exp 0 C, 1.48 MPa, H sub 2 /CO feed ratio = 0.69). The selectivity remained constant for at least 200 hours. This is a very important finding since reduction of methane formation is highly desirable. The catalyst activity simultaneously dropped ten-fold but it should be possible to compensate for this in other ways at least in part such as by operation at higher pressure and/or temperature. Alternately, it may develop that lesser levels of catalyst poisoning may be nearly as effective with less loss of activity. These effects are not observed with H sub 2 S. As far as we know the effects caused by DBT are brand new and have not been observed before. We plan to exploit this lead in several ways, including optimization of DBT level and reaction conditions; study of other heterocyclic sulfur compounds, effects of activation procedures and correlation of methane selectivity with catalyst carbiding as determined by Mossbauer spectroscopy. Also of some importance was the observation that operation in the presence of an aromatic liquid (phenanthrene) increased the rate of reaction by a factor of 1.5 to 1.8, everything else being held constant. (ERA citation 09:030456)

REPORT  NUMBER: DOE/PC/40771-11

CONTRACT  NUMBER: FG22-81PC40771