Compact multiple-plate reactor for Fischer Tropsch synthesis

(as well as for the "water-shift" of Carbon Monoxide into Hydrogen)

ECP has patented and is now developing a stacked and strongly tighten multiple plates' reactor as well as the manner to use it for exothermic reactions, such as the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of hydrocarbons. Thin catalyst grains fill the relatively narrow (up to 50 mm) and relatively short channels (up to 3 m) of the "Reactive" plates (R) made of a well heat conducting metal. A coolant fluid crosses other neighboring metallic Heat-conducting (H) plates of a similar shape and size. The H plates are strongly tightened of the two sides of every R plate to assure a very good thermal contact between them. Dozens or hundreds of such R and H plates can be assembled in a sandwich structure supporting high-pressure syntheses. Very active, fine-granule catalysts (our own design and production) used in such enhanced heat-exchange configuration enable us to considerably reduce the size of the whole reactor. The reactor can be easily assembled and disassembled. All that allows its easy transport to remote sites and/or to the sites where relatively limited resources of waste hydrocarbon gas, an associated gas, a biogas, a producer gas from the biomass gasification, etc. can be converted to synthesis gas (mixture containing CO and H₂) and then to synthetic liquid fuels. Moreover, the reduction and activation of the catalyst takes place inside the same R plates, for example in the catalyst factory, so that ready-to-use R plates are shipped to the final user who proceeds a simply standard exchange of whole R plates, sending the old (used) plates for regeneration.

Iron-based FT catalysts, recently reviewed by ECP, are believed to be advantageously adapted to this plate reactor. Moreover, the Fe-based catalysts accept various syngas mixtures at much wider H₂/CO molar ratios than delicate Cobalt-based catalysts. ECP is presently testing its own catalysts at up to 5-liter FT reactor scale using for that its own, real synthesis gas generated from various fossil and renewable feeds via ECP's GlidArc-assisted reformers at various scale.

ECP believes that its GTL system will be superior because of its compactness advantages. For example, it can be built for barges, for offshore plants or for very remote area. ECP's GTL technology is expected to be "low cost".

The same plate reactor can be also used for water-shift process of Carbon Monoxide catalytic conversion into Hydrogen according to well known exothermic "shift" reaction:

CO + H₂O = H₂ + CO₂.

Such process enhances Hydrogen production based on any synthesis gas stream when H₂ is rather needed for specific Fuel Cell feeding, metallurgy, space propulsion, etc.

ECP has recently developed its own Iron-based catalyst for wax syntheses.

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