Fischer-Tropsch Screening Unit

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Client Perspective

We wanted to carry out bench scale catalyst research and performance evaluations in parallel. It was important that the system was modular, flexible, and easy to use with an ergonomic design. It needed to also be reliable and fit for purpose. The materials involved are challenging to manage, and it is important that we can integrate it with our processes. We were looking for a company with whom we could collaborate well.

The reactor system from ILS is in the final commissioning phase and is expected to help our research gain momentum and understanding our technology better. The unit is very well designed, reliable and the data collected so far is reproducible. The quality of the workmanship is very high and it’s been good value for money.

It’s definitely worth working with ILS because they can give you a very good quality service.

Nico Prinsloo, Sasol

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ILS Solution

A fast Fischer-Tropsch screening unit does cold tail-gas analysis with on-line GC. Water and wax are collected in separate cold and hot traps and are weighed and analyzed offline. The long-term testing unit has a hot tail-gas GC allowing for measurement of up to C10. This powerful analytical approach results in an improved carbon balance as well as the abilty to derive Flory-Schulz distribution plots directly from the on-line data produced.

Incorporation of low-flow, pulsation-free syringe pumps means that minute amounts of liquid olefins can be dosed to study the kinetics of olefin incorporation. Water can also be co-fed to study steaming aging effects or the effect of water co-adsorption on reaction.

A carbonyl purification reactor in the feed section prevents low amounts of iron- or nickel carbonyls from decomposing on the catalyst surface and possibly falsifying data; a particularly large problem for long time-on-stream runs.