Synopsis:

In the last 10 years R&D was focused on the utilization of FT products for the production of advanced biofuels. FT diesel and kerosene are high quality biofuels with excellent combustion behaviour, nearly no soot formation during the combustion process and by the use of standard refinery methods (e.g. isomerization) the fuel properties can even be more improved (e.g. cold flow behaviour).

Problematic and hindering for the market entry of Fischer-Tropsch based advanced fuels are the high production costs (~ more than 1 EUR/liter), low crude oil price and connected with it the maximum reachable prices for advanced biofuels. Nevertheless, FT products are also applicable in the field of chemical industry. Alpha olefins are usable for polymerisation reactions, the FT liquid fraction (~C6-C19) is usable as paraffinum liquidum/perliquidum in the pharmaceutical/personal-care industry and FT waxes (> C20) can be used in dependence of C-chain length as well as molecule structure (n/iso paraffin) in the fields of pharmaceutical-, personal-care-, rubber- or adhesives industry. The use of Fischer-Tropsch bio-based products in the industry (especially pharmaceuticals, personal-care industry...) is associated with strict quality requirements (in particular ratio of n/iso paraffins, olefin and oxygenate content, solid residues, heavy metals...)

Aims and objectives:

• The aim of this project is to enable an overall approach for a bio refinery based on biogenic resources for providing high quality products for chemical industry based on FTS.
• Main objectives of this COMET research project are:
• Further improvement of product separation and fractionation
• Approved separation system for fine catalyst particles
• Increase value of products by shifting product spectrum and upgrading
• Economic assessment of renewable carbon refinery for chemical industry
• Basic design parameters of a demo scale FT plant