Natural Gas Processing from Midstream to Downstream

17 An Energy Integrated Approach to Design a Supercritical Fischer‐Tropsch Synthesis Products Separation and Solvent Recovery System

Tala Katbeh², Nimir O. Elbashir^1,3 and Mahmoud El‐Halwagi⁴

¹Petroleum Engineering Program, Texas A&M University at Qatar, Doha, Qatar

²Chemical Engineering Program, Texas A&M University at Qatar, Doha, Qatar

³TEES Gas and Fuels Research Center, Texas A&M University, Texas, USA

⁴Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, 77843, USA

Chapter Menu

1. 17.1 Introduction
2. 17.2 Approach and Methodology
3. 17.3 Results and Discussion
4. 17.4 Conclusion
5. Acknowledgements

17.1 Introduction

For several decades, pivotal research in FT technology has attracted attention as a result of its provision of a relatively new source of clean fuels as well as value‐added chemicals from abundant natural resources. The FT process involves an exothermic heterogeneous reaction over a cobalt‐based or iron‐based catalyst in which syngas is converted into hydrocarbons with a range of variable chain length (Dry 2002; Steynberg 2004).

The development of GTL technology using natural gas as a feedstock through the FT synthesis evolved from coal‐to‐liquid (CTL) technology developed by Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch to provide transportation fuels for German military machines during World War II (Fischer and Tropsch 1926). The GTL technology then gained traction as an attractive new source of ultraclean fuels that ...