Patent ID: 8921432

Claim:
A method for producing hydrocarbons, the method comprising: a synthesis step of synthesizing hydrocarbons by a Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reaction, using a slurry bubble column reactor having a slurry comprising catalyst particles and liquid hydrocarbons retained inside the reactor, and having a gas phase portion located above the slurry, a discharging step of passing the slurry through a filter positioned inside and/or outside the reactor, thereby separating catalyst particles and heavy liquid hydrocarbons, and discharging the heavy liquid hydrocarbons, the heavy liquid hydrocarbons being discharged from the reactor as liquid, a backwash step of flushing liquid hydrocarbons through the filter in an opposite direction to a flow direction of the slurry, thereby returning catalyst particles accumulated on the filter to the slurry bed inside the reactor, and a cooling and gas-liquid separation step of cooling hydrocarbons discharged from the gas phase portion of the reactor that are gaseous under conditions inside the reactor to a temperature that is at least 180° C. but is lower than a temperature inside the reactor, and then separating condensed light liquid hydrocarbons from gas components and collecting the condensed light liquid hydrocarbons, the condensed light liquid hydrocarbons being discharged from the reactor as gas, wherein the liquid hydrocarbons that are flushed through the filter in the backwash step are a mixture of the light liquid hydrocarbons obtained in the cooling and gas-liquid separation step and the heavy liquid hydrocarbons discharged in the discharging step.