Journal of Advanced Chemical Engineering

Kinetic model and simulation of Fischer Tropsch (FT) reactor with iron catalyst: State of art and FASTCARD alternative

2^nd International Conference on Advances in Chemical Engineering and Technology

November 16-17, 2017 | Paris, France

Irene Rapone, Letizia Bua, Alessandra d�??Arminio Monforte, Ernesto Roccaro and Lino Carnelli

Eni SpA, Italy

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Adv Chem Eng

Abstract:

The simulation of the FT synthesis section with iron catalyst is the aim of this work: Eni implemented the simulation of the FT reactor using kinetic data from experimental tests performed under kinetic-control and changing the type and design of the reactor. A model for the FT reactor has been developed with uniform and non uniform distribution of catalysts: stateof-the-art and FASTCARD alternative. A first sizing of the reactor has been performed. Moreover, the simulation developed in Eni include the complete FT section, with gas/liquid separation, recycle of not converted gas and purification of products, with the aim of enhancing the fuels recovery. FASTCARD aims to develop nano-designed iron based catalysts specifically for Biomass to Liquid (BTL) applications based on a fundamental understanding of the active sites for CO-hydrogenation and forward and reverse WGS. Eni used the experimental data obtained from its European partners to simulate the FT reactor. The work has included several activities: �?� Implementation of the correlations found in literature for FT and WGS (water gas shift) reactions in the Eni's proprietary software, called CheOpe (Chemical Operation). �?� Comparison between the results from different kinetics models (by the process simulator) and the data supplied from European partner (Johnson Matthey) in term of conversion and WGS has allowed to choose the two correlations having the best fit. �?� Regression of the kinetic model parameters to fit a set of experimental data and use these new modified parameters for the interpretation of new experimental data (all experimental data by Johnson Matthey). �?� �?�Modelling of FT reactor using the new kinetic model (Figure1): the simulations have taken in to account the problem of heat removal. So the catalyst distribution has been studied in two cases: uniform and not uniform along the reactor. The impact on productivity has been underlined for the two cases. Acknowledgements. The investigation was carried out under the large scale collaborative project FASTCARD ("FAST Industrialisation by Catalysts Research and Development"), European Union 7th Framework Programme, Grant Agreement No 604277�?�.

Biography :

Irene Rapone graduated in industrial chemistry at La Sapienza University of Rome. She works in Eni, an Italian oil company, in Renewable Energy & Environmental R&D Center in Novara. She deals with process simulation in the department of process technologies.