In Gas-to Liquid (GTL) processes the first step is the production of syngas by either steam methane reforming or partial oxidation (POX) or auto-thermal reforming. The Fischer-Tropsch process reacts syngas to liquid hydrocarbons at high pressure. Integrating catalytic partial oxidation (cPOX) and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis in a single vessel would reduce investment costs sufficiently to produce liquids from associated gas directly at the well head. We investigate the effect of temperature and pressure and O2 flow on the conversion of CH4 and selectivity towards CO, H2, CO2 (and coke) and contact time with a 3-level full factorial design. The catalyst is Pt supported on FeCrAlloy®. Local hot spots develop on the surface in areas that correspond to the active sites, which decreases the selectivity to CO and increases the CO2 selectivity up to 20%. High pressure decreases the conversion of CH4 and CO selectivity, while favoring the water gas shift reaction. However, there is a significant interaction between the experimental factors (pressure, temperature, and composition): increasing temperature reduces the negative effect of the pressure on the conversion, as expected from equilibrium thermodynamics cPOX is a mildly exothermic process that is a significant advantage over steam methane reforming. Conversion and selectivity improves at higher temperatures but decreases with increasing pressure. The challenge will be to disperse the Pt sufficiently well to cover any non-selective surfaces that form coke thereby reducing CO selectivity.

Pt on Fecralloy for methane to syngas at high pressure

249th National Meeting (2015)

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