Page 263 - Lignocellulosic Biomass to Liquid Biofuels

Fischer Tropsch synthesis of syngas to liquid hydrocarbons 219

Figure 7.1 Schematic line-up of the integrated FT synthesis process [2]. FT,
Fischer Tropsch.

fixed-bed reactor in 1936 in Germany with a capacity of
B274 330 MT/day, and gasoline was the major product of the process
and constituted 72% of the total production. Besides, the first coal-based
production plant was constructed in Secunda, South Africa in 1955 by
South African Coal and Oil Company due to the huge availability of coal
in this country. Shell in Malaysia was the second earliest commercial plant
that was producing liquid hydrocarbons using FT synthesis process, while
circulating fluidized bed (CFB) reactors were used for world’s largest FT
application known as “Synthol reactors” [6,7,11,12,48].
This chapter discusses the technical details linking to FT synthesis
along with its recent developments and presents the current status on syn-
gas to liquid hydrocarbons. Recently, the interest towards FT synthesis
has increased as a result of eco-friendly concerns and the higher fossil fuels
consumption. This chapter mainly aimed to provide a detailed summary
of (1) FT synthesis of syngas to liquid hydrocarbons, (2) role of different
catalysts in FT synthesis, (3) kinetic modeling and process simulation for
FT synthesis, (4) role of carbon nanofibers (CNFs)/carbon felt (CF)
composites, and (5) plug the knowledge gaps and provide new research
directions to improve the FT synthesis.