US 7,491,750 B2
Continuous catalyst / wax separation method
Hamid Reza Khakdaman, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Bahman Amini Horri, Karaj (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Hossein Manafi Varkiani, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Sasan Sadraei Noori, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of); and Khairolah Jafari Jozani, Karaj (Iran, Islamic Republic of)
Assigned to Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI), Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of)
Filed on Aug. 16, 2006, as Appl. No. 11/506,061.
Claims priority of application No. 05107539 (EP), filed on Aug. 16, 2005.
Prior Publication US 2007/0039852 A1, Feb. 22, 2007
Int. Cl. C07C 27/00 (2006.01); B01J 20/34 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 518—700  [502/22; 502/29] 13 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for the separation of catalyst particles and the wax product from the output slurry of a Fischer-Tropsch bubble column reactor, said method comprises: i) Contacting a hydrocarbon solvent from a cyclic solvent stream with the slurry, wherein the solvent is a hydrocarbon fraction which is pressurized and heated to its supercritical state and the temperature and the pressure of the solvent at the supercritical state are similar to those of the F-T reactor; ii) Separating the catalyst from the hydrocarbon mixture of the solvent and the slurry in a catalyst separation section which comprises a forced sedimentation step as a primary separation stage and a following filtration step as a secondary separation stage, to form a concentrated catalyst stream containing the catalyst particles and to form an enriched solvent stream containing the reactor wax product and hydrocarbon solvent; iii) Separating the hydrocarbon solvent and the wax product from the enriched solvent stream in a solvent recovery section to form a recovered solvent phase and a purified wax phase; iv) Directing the recovered solvent phase to the cyclic solvent stream; which is used after re-pressurizing and re-heating in a supercritical solvent supply module to recycling the hydrocarbon solvent for the contacting step; v) Processing of the purified wax phase in an up-grading unit to produce GTL products; and vi) Providing of a make-up solvent for the cyclic solvent stream from a fresh solvent supply section additionally to the recovered solvent to compensate solvent loss in the process.