Modeling Fischer-Tropsch Product Distribution of a Cobalt-based Catalyst in Different Reaction Media

This paper discusses research efforts towards the prediction of hydrocarbon product distribution for the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) on a cobalt-based catalyst using a micro-kinetic model taken from the literature. In the first part of the study, a MATLAB® code has been developed which uses the Genetic Algorithm Toolbox to estimate parameter values for the kinetic model. The second part of the study describes an ongoing experimental campaign to validate the model predictions of the fixed-bed reactor FTS product distribution in both conventional (gas phase) and non-conventional (near-critical and supercritical phase) reaction media.