(33b) Diesel Length Aldehydes From Iron-Based Fischer Tropsch Synthesis
AIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process Safety
2010
2010 Spring Meeting & 6th Global Congress on Process Safety
10th Topical Conference on Gas Utilization
Coal, Biomass and Natural Gas to Liquids II
Monday, March 22, 2010 - 3:00pm to 3:30pm
Carrying out Fischer Tropsch Synthesis on an iron catalyst promoted with zinc, copper, and potassium under supercritical conditions resulted in a significant selectivity to diesel-length aldehydes. Performing the reaction under traditional gas phase and slurry phase conditions gave a similar overall product distribution, but did not give detectable quantities of these aldehydes. Additionally, studies in which the residence time was varied indicated that aldehydes are primary products that are, through secondary reactions, converted to olefins. Paraffins also are primary products, with the supercritical media effectively supressing their formation from olefins. These results carry implications for the steps through which the different types of product are formed and the mechanism of chain propagation.