Backpressure contro - Fischer-Tropsch kinetic testing unit

The recent extreme rise in gasoline and diesel prices has resulted in a renaissance of interest in Fischer-Tropsch, gas-to-liquids technology. ILS developed a micro-pilot demonstration unit for a major petrochemical company in order to perform kinetic studies on supported cobalt, Fischer-Tropsch catalysts.

The Fischer-Tropsch reaction converts synthesis gas to liquid paraffin. The conversion of gas to liquid results in a significant variation of the volumetric flow leaving the reactor. Active catalysts produce mostly liquids resulting in low product gas flows and low-activity catalysts yield mostly gas and hence high gas flows. This presents a particularly difficult problem for the control valve as it has to operate over a very wide range of flows and pressures. The valve implemented here has performed equally well with high- and low-activity catalysts operating under a variety of process conditions.

Kinetic studies require extremely stable temperatures and pressures. ILS implemented a Badger valve in this case to control the reaction pressure for a fixed-bed Fischer-Tropsch reactor. The single Badger valve provides extremely tight pressure control within the precision limits of the sensor. It was particularly interesting to see that the Badger valve was able to control very low flow flows, which occur as a result of high Fischer-Tropsch conversions.