SIMULATION OF GAS TO LIQUID (GTL) PROCESS IN FIXED BED REACTOR

Abstract

Gas to Liquid (GTL) is a technology in which natural gas is converting in to crude oil i.e. mixture of complexes hydrocarbon .So its products called as syncrude. At the place of natural gas we can also used coal and biomass for feed stock. In the currently situation it is one of the alternative source of energy which can produce transportable fuel at economical rate an also environmentally clean fuel. During World War II, Gas to Liquid (GTL) process first time is used to produce liquid transport fuels in Germany. But after the war Gas to Liquid (GTL) process were disconnected due to easy availability of petroleum. From that time many models have been proposed for many reactors like slurry bed reactor, fluidized bed reactor and fixed bed reactor of Gas to Liquid (GTL) process but still no consensus is developed on a model of fixed bed reactor to to study the effect of parameter by using Ansys 13. In the present study a 2-D mathematical model of fixed bed reactor is developed and simulated it by Ansys 13 to study mass transfer, heat transfer and reaction kinetics in this reactor. The results come from simulator is in good agreement with experiment result.The model is also used to study the effect of parameter like parameter like mass flow rate ,feed temperature, coolant temperature ,composition of feed on the conversion of CO and temperature of reactor. It was found that the at the H2/CO ratio in the feed is equal to 2 we get 100 percent conversion of CO. A CFD model of industrial fixed bed reactor which having capacity of 10,0000 bbl/day of capacity is also design and studied the effect of parameters.