(68b) The U.S. Air Force's Assured Aerospace Fuels Research Facility Fischer-Tropsch Liquids Upgrading Reactor

As part of a strategic initiative to prepare for the broader use of synthetic aviation fuels, the United States Air Force is constructing a facility which will allow it to produce synthetic aviation fuels and fuel components in quantities sufficient for small scale engine testing.  When completed, it will be possible to produce synthesis gas, convert synthesis gas to liquids, and further process these liquids to fuel and fuel components which can be separated by distillation.  Here we describe the operation of a catalytic hydrocracker for the conversion of normal alkane feedstocks to jet fuel as the first phase of this effort.  The unit is designed to produce in the range of 10-15 gallons of jet fuel per day.  A commercially available cut of a Fischer-Tropsch wax with carbon numbers ranging from about C₂₀ to C₆₀ and a distribution peak in the C₃₀-C₃₅ range, serves as the initial test feed.  This broad distribution of paraffins is isomerized and hydrocracked over a commercially manufactured, unsulfided, Co/MoO₃/Silica-Alumina catalyst to yield naphtha and fuel fractions which are subsequently isolated in a fractionator and vacuum distillation column, respectively.  The insufficiently converted distribution left in the vacuum bottoms is then recycled to the entrance of the catalytic cracking unit where it is continuously combined with fresh feed.  We describe the initial operating characteristics, cracking, and product recovery results.