Patent ID: 6265452
Filing Date: 2001-07-24
Classification: B01D,B01J,C07C,C10G,Y02P

Abstract:
A process for producing liquid and gaseous products from gaseous reactants, which process comprisesfeeding, at a low level, a synthesis gas stream comprising mainly carbon monoxide and hydrogen, as gaseous reactants, into a slurry bed of solid Fischer-Tropsch catalyst particles suspended in a suspension liquid, with the slurry bed being provided in a reaction zone;allowing the gaseous reactants to react, by means of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, as they pass upwardly through the slurry bed, thereby to form liquid and gaseous products, with the gaseous reactants and the gaseous product assisting in maintaining the solid catalyst particles in suspension in the suspension liquid, and with the liquid product forming, together with the suspension liquid, a liquid phase of the slurry bed;withdrawing liquid phase from the slurry bed, to maintain the slurry bed at a desired level;allowing gaseous products and unreacted gaseous reactants to disengage from the slurry bed and to pass upwardly, together with entrained solid catalyst particles and liquid phase, as a gas phase into a freeboard zone of a head space above the slurry bed, with the freeboard zone being located immediately above the reaction zone;treating the gas phase by subjecting it to distillation and, optionally, washing in the head space, with the distillation being effected in a distillation zone of the head space, and the washing, when present, being effected in a wash zone of the head space, and with the distillation zone and the wash zone, when present, being spaced from the reaction zone by the freeboard zone, thereby to separate entrained solid catalyst particles and liquid phase from the gas phase;returning the separated entrained solid catalyst particles and liquid phase from the distillation zone, or, when present, from the wash zone, to the slurry bed through a conduit so that there is no contact thereof with the gas phase in the freeboard zone; andwithdrawing the treated gas phase from the head space.