Optimal design and operation of Fischer-Tropsch microchannel reactor for pilot-scale compact Gas-to-Liquid process

Design and operation of pilot-scale (1.0 BDP) compact GTL process comprising of reforming section, CO₂ separating section, and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis section is presented. Detailed systematic computer-aided design procedure adopted to design a modular 0.5 BPD pilot-scale microchannel reactor used in the pilot plant operation is also presented. The modular microchannel FT reactor block design consists of 528 process channels and numerous coolant channels arranged in cross-cocurrent-cross configuration for adequate heat removal. On average 98.27% CH₄ conversion to syngas in reforming section comprising of a pre-reformer unit and a tri-reformer unit, and CO₂ separation rate of 36.75% along with CO/H₂ reduction from 2.67 to 2.08 in CO₂ membrane separation section were achieved from the entire pilot plant operation duration of 450 h. Parallel operation of FT microchannel reactor and multitubular fixed-bed type FT reactor for comparison showed that multitubular fixed-bed type reactor undergoes reaction runaway for the applied process conditions, while microchannel reactor showed adequate temperature control. Overall CO conversion of 83% and adequate temperature control at three different applied operating temperatures of 220 °C, 230 °C, and 240 °C subsequently during the 139 h FT reactor operation demonstrated the appreciable performance of the present microchannel FT reactor designed.