Hydrocarbon Production

PFD 3: hydrocarbon generating section (P300) Clean syngas is converted into a range of hydrocarbon compounds in the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reactors via the generic reaction:

where

, and

are the number of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms,

respectively, in a given hydrocarbon compound. The distribution of the hydrocarbon products formed in the reactors can be assumed to follow the theoretical Anderson-Schulz-Flory (ASF) distribution based on the chain growth probability values.

Wn is the mass fraction of the species with carbon number chain growth probability.

and

is the

The type of FT reactor in use is the one operating at high temperature (P301A, T = 320C). The high-temperature process has a lower chain growth probability ( = 0.65) that favors the formation of gasoline-length hydrocarbons, while the low-temperature process ( corresponding FT operating temperatures. The conversion of CO in the FT reactor is assumed to be 80 mol%. This high conversion can be achieved in a slurry-phase system due to the high syngascatalyst contact and mixing in the reactor. Oxygenated compounds formed in the reactors are represented by vapor phase, aqueous phase, and organic phase pseudo-components. The total converted carbon present in each pseudo-component is 0.1%, 1.0%, and 0.4%, respectively. = 0.73) form heavier

hydrocarbons and waxes. The syngas is compressed and preheated to the

The distribution of the remaining carbon follows a slightly modified ASF distribution described in the Process Modeling section to account for increased formation of light hydrocarbons. The FT effluent stream is treated in a series of product separations and catalyst recovery process, following a Bechtel design. The streams are mixed and passed through a wax separation unit (P302). The vapor is cooled, sent to an aqueous oxygenate separator (P303), flashed to remove entrained water (P304), and passed through a vapor oxygenate separator (P307). The

knocked out water and oxygenates are sent to the knockout mixer (M303) while the vapor and organic liquids are sent to the first hydrocarbon mixer (M306). The wax from P302 is cooled to 150C before being sent to an entrained vapor removal unit (P305). The wax is sent to the second hydrocarbon mixer (M304) and the vapor is further cooled to 40C and sent to a flash unit (P306) for water knockout. The vapor is sent to M306, the organic liquid is sent to M304, and the knockout water is sent to M303. All hydrocarbons are directed to M401 before being sent to the upgrading section.