Hydrocarbon Technologies, Inc.

Other

Headwaters Technology Innovation, LLC

Yijun Lu

Peizheng Zhou

Lap-Keung Lee

Guohui Li

Jinglai Zhou

Bing Zhou

Michael A Rueter

Zhihua Wu

Zhenhua Zhou

Zhixin Zhang

Linyao Dong

Hairong Wang

An improved skeletal iron catalyst is provided for use in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reactions for converting CO and Hto hydrocarbon products. The skeletal iron catalyst is manufactured using iron and a removable non-ferrous component such as aluminum. The iron and removable non-ferrous component are mixed together to form a precursor catalyst and then a portion of the removable non-ferrous component is removed to leave a skeletal iron catalyst. One or more first promoter metals and optionally one or more second promoter metals are incorporated into the skeletal iron catalyst either by blending the promoter into the precursor catalyst during the formation thereof or by depositing the promoter on the skeletal iron. The first promoter metals comprises a metal selected from the group consisting of titanium, zirconium, vanadium, cobalt, molybdenum, tungsten, and platinum-group metals. The first promoter metal is selected to improve the yield of Chydrocarbons when the skeletal iron catalyst is used in a Fischer-Tropsch reaction.

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Promoted skeletal iron catalysts are provided which contain 70-90 wt % iron together with promoters 0-5.0 wt. % copper, 0.1-10.0 wt. % manganese, and 0.1-3.0 wt. % potassium, with the balance being aluminum. The catalysts are prepared by mixing the metal chips or powders uniformly together, then melting and rapidly quenching the molten metals to form a solid metal alloy precursor including the promotor metals except potassium, removing most of the aluminum by caustic extraction/leaching to provide a base skeletal iron form, then loading the potassium promoter from a suitable potassium alcohol solution promoter. After evaporation of the solvent, the promoted skeletal iron catalyst is activated by contact with hydrogen. The promoted skeletal iron catalysts are utilized for F-T synthesis processes at 10-30 wt % catalyst concentration, 200-350&deg; C. temperature, 1.0-3.0 Mpa pressure and gas hourly space velocity of 0.5-5.0 L/gcat-h to produce desired hydrocarbon liquid products. The promoted skeletal iron catalysts provide good catalytic activity and selectivity for hydrogen and CO conversions, for distillate fuel products are attrition resistant synthesis, and are readily separable from waxy liquid product by gravity sedimentation.

Promoted skeletal iron catalysts for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis processes

Process and economic advantages are achieved by the integration of a Fischer Tropsch process for hydrocarbon liquids production as a retrofit in an installation for the production of ammonia fertilizer from fossil fuel derived syngas. Utilization of most of the CO and part of the H in the syngas stream during Fischer-Tropsch synthesis as the first step in the integrated process produces hydrocarbon products while the F-T effluent containing unreacted hydrogen gas at the necessary ratio of H /N is used in the second step of ammonia synthesis. The overall product slate as appropriate for maximum economic performance of the installation is thus achieved.

Integrated process for the production of hydrocarbon liquids and ammonia

Particulate skeletal iron catalyst is provided which contain at least about 50 wt. % iron with the remainder being a minor portion of a suitable non-ferrous metal and having characteristics of 0.062-1.0 mm particle size, 20-100 m,/g surface area, and 10-40 nm average pore diameter. Such skeletal iron catalysts are prepared and utilized for producing synthetic hydrocarbon products from CO and H,feeds by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis process. Iron powder is mixed with non-ferrous powder selected from aluminum, antimony, silicon, tin or zinc powder to provide 20-80 wt. % iron content and melted together to form an iron alloy, then cooled to room temperature and pulverized to provide 0.1-10 mm iron alloy catalyst precursor particles. The iron alloy pulverized particles are treated with NaOH or KOH caustic solution at 30-95&deg; C. temperature to extract and/or leach out most of the non-ferrous metal portion, and then screened and treated by drying and reducing with hydrogen and to provide the smaller size skeletal iron catalyst material. Such skeletal iron catalyst is utilized with CO&plus;H,feedstream for Fischer-Tropsch reactions in either a fixed bed or slurry bed type reactor at 180-350&deg; C. temperature, 0.5-3.0 mPa pressure and gas hourly space velocity of 0.5-3.0 L/g Fe/hr to produce desired hydrocarbon products.

Skeletal iron catalyst having improved attrition resistance and product selectivity in slurry-phase synthesis processes

Skeletal iron catalysts are prepared and utilized for producing hydrocarbon products from CO and H,feeds by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis process. Iron powder is mixed with aluminum, antimony, silicon, tin or zinc powder and 0.01-5 wt % metal promotor powder to provide 20-80 wt % iron content, then melted together, cooled to room temperature and pulverized to provide 0.1-10 mm iron alloy catalyst precursor particles. The iron alloy precursor particles are treated with NaOH or KOH caustic solution at 30-95&deg; C. to extract or leach out a major portion of the non-ferrous metal portion from the iron, and then dried and reduced under hydrogen atmosphere to provide the skeletal iron catalyst material. Such skeletal iron catalyst is utilized with CO&plus;H,feedstream in either fixed bed or slurry bed type reactor at 200-350&deg; C. temperature, 1.0-3.0 mPa pressure and gas hourly space velocity of 0.5-3.0 L/g Fe/h to produce desired hydrocarbon products.

Skeletal iron catalyst and its preparation for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis processes

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Lawrenceville, NJ, United States of America

Yijun Lu