(483c) Enhanced Heat Transfer Catalyst Structure for Fisher Tropsch Synthesis

Microfibrous Entrapped Catalyst (MFEC) made of copper has radial effective thermal conductivity 9.05W/m-K in stagnant gas, which is fifty six times of that of alumina PB, 0.16 W/m-K, while the inside wall heat transfer coefficient of it is 235W/m2-K, ten times of that of alumina PB, 22.7W/m2-K. Therefore, the intra-bed heat transfer of fixed bed reactor can be greatly enhanced by using Cu MFEC as catalyst support. To avoid the copper poison from tradition method, a novel method to load catalyst into MFEC structure was developed by entrapping pre-manufacture catalyst particle into sintered fiber mesh. This method promises a high potential for the application of Cu MFEC in many heterogeneous highly exothermic or highly endothermic reactions, such as hydrogenation, stream reforming, partial oxidation and so on. The application of this catalyst structure in Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis is a good example. The new catalyst loading method makes Co/Al2O3catalyst totally copper free, which is an inhibit promoter for this catalyst. Due to faster removal of the reaction heat from the catalyst bed, Cu MFEC can efficiently avoid the hot spot and prevent runaway, which are very easy to happen in packed bed. In addition, the fine controlling of the temperature inside the catalyst bed gives much better product selectivity at high temperature and high conversion. Furthermore, the application of Cu MFEC allows using a large size reactor for highly exothermic reaction with a wider operation condition.