intensification of fischer-tropsch synthesis using milli-fixed-bed reactors

In the current study, the opportunities for overcoming the fixed bed reactor limitations (e.g. thermal runaway, pressure drop …) via process intensification was investigated. two fixed bed reactors; one with commercial dimensions (cfb) and another specialized for process intensification (ifb) were modeled using a commercial catalyst with low activity (la) and another catalyst with high activity (ha). the operating conditions were p0=20 bar, h2/co=2, and t0=220°c and ghsv=3000-15000 [1/hr]. in the case of cfb reactor, usage of ha catalyst lead to thermal runaway, and pressure drop rapidly increased for la catalyst as function of ghsv, leading to maximum productivity of 0.27 [kgkgcat-1hr-1]. using ifb reactor increased maximum productivity to 0.55 [kgkgcat-1hr-1] for la catalyst, but for higher ghsvs the intrinsic rate of la catalyst became rate determining step. the maximum productivity using ha catalyst in ifb reactor was 2.51 [kgkgcat-1hr-1]. thus ifb reactor could intensify commercial catalyst productivity, but for proper utilization of ifb reactor, the catalyst activity should be considerably higher than that of conventional catalysts.