ABSTRACT

The decrease in reserved fossil fuel along with its unexpected price increase and more
greenhouse gases emission to the environment from the transportation fuel has developed
new alternative to produce biofuels. Biomass has a great future due to its capability to
produce fuels for transportation purpose without harming the environment. Producing
biofuel using biomass is also known as biomass to liquid technology. This technology
consists of four stages shown in Figure 1.1. Firstly, the biomass should undergo
gasification before synthesizing gas cleaning. Followed by Fischer- Tropsch (FT)
synthesis and then liquid must undergo hydro processing. Finally, the distillation process
of the liquid [1]. The FT synthesis is classified into low and high temperature FT
synthesis. The production of natural gas from FT technology is environmentally feasible
because the concentration of sulphur, nitrogen and other harmful gases are lesser [1].
This report will discuss the FT synthesis in a slurry bed reactor and improvements to be
made in the future.

SECTION A

Figure 1.0 shows the overall process to produce fuel via FT synthesis

During the FT stage, the syngas enters the reactor to undergo FT synthesis. For this
process, iron-based catalyst is selected [2]. During this process, synthetic crude oil will be
formed which consists of various hydrocarbons. The formed crude oil will undergo
upgrading stage where it will be purified to products such as diesel and fuel.

After the second world war, a company is Germany invented first slurry bed reactor like
multitubular reactor for the FT synthesis (Sie and Krishna 1999). The purpose of the
invention is to overcome problems related with fixed bed reactor. It was designed with an
outer diameter of 5m and length of 22m . The designing process of slurry bed was easier
and cheaper than multitubular reactor.
 Figure 2.0 shows the schematic diagram of slurry bed reactor used for FT synthesis

The process of the FT synthesis in a slurry bed reactor starts with the syngas passing
through gas distributor after entering the slurry bed reactor from the bottom. The CO and
H2 will dissolve in the liquid phase at it passes the catalyst. The catalyst in the solid form
will be dispersed in the liquid where the thermal capacity is higher. A series of reaction
will occur on the surface of the catalyst. The gas phase with homogeneous flow has small
bubbles where usually less than 5mm. Once the reaction is done, the products in the gas
form exits from the top of the reactor. The catalyst/wax used in the reaction will exit from
the side of the reactor as shown in Figure 2.0. Consequently, fresh catalysts will enter the
reactor again from the bottom. The reactor will be operating concurrently with slurry and
the gas.

There are few main and side reaction takes place inside the slurry bed column. One of the
main reactions is the formation of paraffins also known as saturated hydrocarbons.
The equation is shown below.

( 2 n+1 ) H 2+ nCO →C n H 2 n +2+ n H 2 O

The other main reaction will be formation of olefins also known as unsaturated
hydrocarbons. The equation is shown below.

2 n H 2+ nCO →C n H 2n + n H 2 O

The gas - water shift will be another main reaction occur inside the slurry bed column.
The equation is shown below.
CO+ H 2 O →C O 2 + H 2

The major reactions shown above are exothermic reaction where the heat should be
managed properly to prevent hot spots. The hot spots are dangerous as it can damage the
catalyst and reactor. As slurry bed reactor has good heat transfer properties, therefore the
problem can be solved easily [2].

Other than major reaction, there are two side reactions occur as well. One of it is
formation of alcohol. The equation is shown below.

2 n H 2+ nCO →C n H 2n +2 O+(n−1) H 2 O

The catalyst oxidation and reduction should be considered inside the slurry bed reactor.
The equations for catalyst shown below.

M x O y + yCO ↔ yC O2+ xM (oxidation)

M x O y + y H 2 ↔ y H 2 O+ xM (reduction )

Figure 3.0 shows the iron-based catalysts with their respective CO conversion

Selecting appropriate catalyst is important in the FT synthesis. The reason behind is

because the catalyst directly affecting the reaction, the conversion of CO and the
selectivity. For this reaction, there are many ways to prepare the iron-based catalyst. The
catalyst is prepared using precipitation method together with spray drying method. The
operating condition of the slurry bed reactor using iron-based catalyst (Fe) is at the
temperature of 563 K and a pressure of 30 bar. The H 2/CO inlet feed ratio was 1.5. This
operating condition was selected due to the highest CO conversion which is 97%
compared to other iron-based catalysts. Therefore, for this reactor the precipitated
catalyst will be spray dried as the reactor requires smaller particle size [3]. Figure 3.0
shows the actual data of using various iron-based catalyst.

SECTION B
Among all the reactors used for the FT synthesis, slurry bed reactor is getting more
attention as a FT synthesis reactor. There are many advantages of using slurry bed
reactor compared to multi tubular reactor because it is cheaper as the cost of the reactor
train and operation cost is relatively very low. Moreover, the differential pressure in the
slurry is much lower which result in less pressure drop (Tijmensen et al. 2002)[5].
Therefore, can reduce the cost for gas compression. The consumption of the catalyst for
the slurry reactor for per tonne of product is relatively low. As slurry bed reactor is an
isothermal reactor, therefore operating at a high temperature will only increase the
conversion rate of CO. The size of the catalyst which is small results in a high
productivity and can be removed easily as well. [4]

Another significant advantage of slurry reactor would be heat removal is faster through
liquid vaporization. This is due to slurry phase will be well mixed where the inside
temperature of the reactor will be consistent. Therefore, will be no local hot spots. This
will help to reach the optimum higher temperature without creating any damage to the
catalyst. The production of the reactor can be increased by increasing the slurry
concentration. Increase in the concentration will create more large bubbles.

On the other hand, there are some drawbacks of using slurry bed reactor. One of the
biggest challenges of using slurry reactor is the separation of the catalyst/waxes is
complex and expensive. The catalysts used in the reactor can be damaged easily. This
may be due to continuous flow where the catalysts are exposed to harmful gases such as
sulphur. In fixed bed reactor, the top part of the reactor prevents the catalyst from getting
exposed to harmful gases (Espinoza et al). Moreover, it is very important to purify the
syngas before feeding inside the reactor. This may cause the catalysts fluidized and could
damage and deactivate the particles (Dry 2010) [5]. Additionally, the disadvantage will
be more resistance to mass transfer and high chance for back mixing on liquid and gas
phase. Another key disadvantage will be complex for maintaining at industrial level.
[Link]’s research group has exposed that slurry bed reactors has issues when scaling
up.
Most articles published for the past 20 years, still suggests having more comprehensive
study on design and its performance on the slurry bed reactor [6]. In a nutshell, slurry bed
reactor gives the best catalyst consumption and high productivity, however, still need
more research has to be done to improve its efficiency on FT synthesis.

REFERENCE
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[2] (2021). Retrieved 2 May 2021, from

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[3] Rauch, R., Kiennemann, A., & Sauciuc, A. (2021). Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis to
Biofuels (BtL Process). Retrieved 2 May 2021, from

[4] (2021). Retrieved 2 May 2021, from

[Link]
Temperature_Fischer-
Tropsch_Process_Determination_Place_of_Intensifier_Reactor_Perspective

[5] (2021). Retrieved 2 May 2021, from

[Link]

[6] ]2021). Retrieved 2 May 2021, from [Link]