Microchannel FT Reactor Starts Up Under Commercial Conditions

The first commercial scale microchannel Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reactor has been successfully started up and is operating as expected at a client’s facility.

The reactor, with a nominal capacity of over 25 barrels per day (bpd), is expected to be run continuously for up to six months at the client’s facility.

The reactor was transported to the client’s site during the first quarter of 2012 with the catalyst already loaded.

Catalyst activation/reduction was performed at the client’s site under commercially relevant conditions and synthesis gas operations began last week.

The client, an integrated energy company, is operating the reactor to provide detailed engineering information for the design of commercial medium scale modular synthetic fuels plants that it plans to build on sites around the world.

Steve LeViness, Fischer-Tropsch Product Manager, Oxford Catalysts Group/Velocys says: “This has been a successful catalyst activation and start up, and we have completed the commissioning process. This demonstration is the culmination of significant catalyst and reactor scale-up efforts that have been ongoing for several years. The catalyst performance is in good agreement with our lab results, and we are very pleased with the unit’s performance so far. We are looking forward its continued operation and successful demonstration of Velocys’ FT technology.”