A Novel Syngas Purification System to Support Mobile Synthetic Fuel Plants

The military is interested in the development of mobile systems to produce Fischer Tropsch (FT) synthetic fuels from local resources in the combat theater (natural gas, crude oils, biomass, coal, etc.) and has supported the development of various high throughput FT reactors, gasifiers and FT upgrading systems that could accomplish high conversion per unit volume. The mobile FT plants will require many supporting operations to be intensified to attain the major weight and size reductions. One key need is to remove impurities and diluents from the syngas feedstock to the FT process to ensure long life and stability of the FT catalysts. The reduction of diluents, particularly CO2, will also intensify the synthesis process and thereby increase the product yield and purity. TDA Research, Inc. (TDA) proposes to develop a syngas clean-up and purification unit to remove potential catalyst poisons and diluents from the syngas to ensure long life, stable operation of the FT catalyst and to achieve a high yield from the FT synthesis reactor.