Example of Scale-up through Concurrent Modeling

These products can be fairly easily processed into high-quality diesel and jet fuel in theory, any source of carbon can be used to generate synthesis gas. These facts along with the growing need for petroleum alternatives have renewed interest in FT synthesis. During the twentieth century, the FT process was used to produce fuels from coal in large and costly reactors. Recently, this megasize approach has been applied to world-scale GTL plants in Qatar. However, to tap abundant biomass resources and stranded natural gas reserves, a smaller scale, yet economically viable, FT process is needed. 

The application of microchannel technology is a natural fit for the production of synthetic fuels via the FT process. The primary limitations of conventional FT technology include the removal of process heat that can produce hot spots and severely shorten catalyst life, and effective management of two-phase flow as synthesis gas transforms into hquid hydrocarbons. Both these issues can be addressed with microchaimel technology, which greatly improves heat transfer and precisely controls flow through thousands of parallel chaimels. 

As described above, microchannel reactor scale-up requires integrated models, which include the reaction chemistry with heat transfer, pressure drop, flow distribution, and manufacturing tolerances. The culmination of scale-up models is their successful demonstration. 

20 bar total pressure, 2 1 for H2 CO, 16% nitrogen dilution, and 210°C average temperature. 

Operation of a large-scale reactor with thousands of parallel channels is expected in 2011. 

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