Health & Environmental Research Online (HERO)


Print Feedback Export to File
8305811 
Journal Article 
Feasibility study of separating Fischer-Tropsch wax from catalyst using supercritical fluid extraction 
Amiri, A; Moosavian, MA; Khakdaman, HR 
2006 
Yes 
Journal of Applied Sciences
ISSN: 1812-5654 
6 
9 
2096-2101 
English 
The technical feasibility of a method of separating Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) catalysts from the viscous output slurry of F-T bubble column reactor, where the slurry comprises fine catalyst particles with average size of 3μ and heavy hydrocarbon products was studied. The method comprises contacting a compressed solvent, here defined as hexane, at supercritical condition, with the output slurry at a temperature and pressure wherein the liquid hydrocarbon product is soluble in the solvent to form a concentrated slurry phase containing the catalyst particles and an enriched solvent phase containing liquid hydrocarbon product. This study was accomplished by making comparison between such new method and the conventional method using no hexane for extracting 10 wt% cobalt catalysts in wax, using a pilot-scale batch apparatus including filtration as extraction unit. This study revealed the advantages of applying the novel method in comparison with the conventional filtration method itself; by achieving high amounts of extracted catalyst. Further, the effect of pressure, temperature and hexane to wax ratio on the process was investigated. The analysis of results showed that; first, catalyst extraction would increase by raising the pressure; second, catalyst recovery was first increased by raising the temperature but by more temperature increase the catalyst recovery got downward trend; third, mounting the hexane to wax ratio from 1 to 3, increased the amounts of recovered catalyst noticeably. © 2006 Asian Network for Scientific Information. 
Catalyst; Filtration; Fischer-tropsch; Separation; Supercritical