Small-Scale Coal-Biomass to Liquids Production Using Highly Selective Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis

Technical Report · Thu Apr 30 04:00:00 EDT 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1224797· OSTI ID:1224797

Gangwal, Santosh K. ^[1]; McCabe, Kevin ^[2]

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1. Southern Research Institute, Durham, NC (United States); Southern Research Institute
2. Southern Research Institute, Durham, NC (United States)

The research project advanced coal-to-liquids (CTL) and coal-biomass to liquids (CBTL) processes by testing and validating Chevron’s highly selective and active cobalt-zeolite hybrid Fischer-Tropsch (FT) catalyst to convert gasifier syngas predominantly to gasoline, jet fuel and diesel range hydrocarbon liquids, thereby eliminating expensive wax upgrading operations The National Carbon Capture Center (NCCC) operated by Southern Company (SC) at Wilsonville, Alabama served as the host site for the gasifier slip-stream testing/demonstration. Southern Research designed, installed and commissioned a bench scale skid mounted FT reactor system (SR-CBTL test rig) that was fully integrated with a slip stream from SC/NCCC’s transport integrated gasifier (TRIG^TM). The test-rig was designed to receive up to 5 lb/h raw syngas augmented with bottled syngas to adjust the H₂/CO molar ratio to 2, clean it to cobalt FT catalyst specifications, and produce liquid FT products at the design capacity of 2 to 4 L/day. It employed a 2-inch diameter boiling water jacketed fixed-bed heat-exchange FT reactor incorporating Chevron’s catalyst in Intramicron’s high thermal conductivity micro-fibrous entrapped catalyst (MFEC) packing to efficiently remove heat produced by the highly exothermic FT reaction.

• Research Organization: Southern Research Institute, Durham, NC (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: FE0010231
• OSTI ID: 1224797
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English