(283f) Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of Microchannel Reactors for Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis: Design Optimization, Thermal Management and Scale-up

Microchannel reactors have attracted significant attention in recent years, due to their ability to leverage reduced heat and mass length scales to maximize process intensification, which has the potential to deliver major benefits to the chemical process industry, by accelerating the response to market changes, simplifying scaleup and providing the basis for rapid development of new products and processes.

However, there remain significant improvements to be made in the design of the microchannel reactors, specifically in the areas of maximizing catalyst utilization, improving heat management both within the reactor and in a scaled-up unit consisting of multiple reactors, and overall scale-up strategies to enhance market viability.

Therefore, this work will present detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to optimize the design of a microchannel reactor currently being used at North Carolina A&T State University for the catalytic production of liquid fuels via the Fischer-Tropsch reaction. Various reactor designs are considered by optimizing the reactor inlet, gas distribution and channel design, and are compared based on their potential to maximize catalyst utilization, optimize heat management and enhance overall reactor liquid products yield. Moreover, various scaleup/scaledown challenges, namely efficient gas distribution and feed, products and coolant flow alignment will be identified and tested using improved design configurations; and suggestions for further studies will be identified.