Improving the Interface between Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis and Refining

In a typical industrial Fischer–Tropsch process the hot reaction product from Fischer–Tropsch synthesis is stepwise cooled, condensed, and recovered, before being separated by distillation into different cuts. A different design was proposed whereby the hot reaction products are directly introduced into a pressure distillation unit, which combines syncrude recovery and distillation. Process simulation was employed to evaluate the proposal. It was found that integration of syncrude recovery and distillation was technically viable and that it had a number of benefits compared to stepwise cooling and recovery of syncrude prior to distillation. These positive outcomes were independent of the type of Fischer–Tropsch technology used. Some notable benefits included a decrease in heating/cooling duty, improved liquid recovery, and reduced loading of tail gas separation. The proposed design also enabled other improvements, such as a strategy to improve catalyst-wax separation from slurry bubble column reactors and a strategy to reactively improve distillation performance and increase liquid yield.