Department of Chemical Engineering Technology

Abu Dhabi Men’s College

CHE 2413 – Oil and gas processing technology
Spring-2021

Fischer Tropsch Process

Instructor: Dr. Muhammad Waqas 

Huda Naser Mohammed Alkhoori

H00413783

Fischer Tropsch Process

Coal can be converted into liquid fuels by indirect liquefaction which involves gasification of
coal to mixtures of carbon monoxide and hydrogen (synthesis gas) followed by application of the
Fischer-Tropsch process
Fischer-Tropsch process is a catalyzed chemical reaction that converts a mixture of carbon
monoxide and hydrogen into different forms of liquid hydrocarbon (useful hydrocarbons such as
diesel and kerosene) with the presence of metal catalyst at moderate temperature and pressure.
The catalyst used are based on iron, cobalt or nickel. Although, nickel catalyst is not widely used
due to the high amount of methane production in the process which is not desirable.
The main purpose of this process is to convert these gases to a synthetic petroleum substitute for
use as synthetic lubrication oil or as synthetic fuel. The process is currently used in South Africa
to produce liquid fuels from syngas (produced from coal by gasification).

The Fischer-Tropsch process is represented as the conversion of carbon monoxide and hydrogen
to hydrocarbons and water
nCO + (2n+1)H2 cat→ CnH(2n+2) + nH2O
P,

∆T

the initial reactants (CO and H2) can also be produced through other reactions such as

gasification of solid coal or biomass

C + H2O → H2 + CO

Or partial combustion of a hydrocarbon

 1
CnH(2n+2) + n O2 → (n+1)H2 + nCO
2

Other reactions take place when converting the mixture of CO and H2 into hydrocarbons
(aliphatic) such as:

- Associative adsorption of CO
- Splitting of the C–O bond
- Dissociative adsorption of 2 H2
- Transfer of 2 H to the oxygen to yield H2O
- Desorption of H2O
- Transfer of 2 H to the carbon to yield CH2

The mixture of hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide is called “syngas”. The product of
hydrocarbons and water are refined to produce the desired synthetic fuel.
The liquid fuels formed by the Fischer-Tropsch process are classified as environmentally fuels
because they burn much cleaner. This process has also other advantages as the raw materials
(coal) is available in abundant quantities in nature, and it produces a low-sulfur diesel fuel.
One example is Sasol in South Africa uses Fischer-Tropsch technology process to operate, a
country with large coal reserves, but little oil. The first commercial plant opened in 1952. Sasol
uses coal and natural gas as feedstocks and produces large amounts of synthetic petroleum
products.
Using Fischer-Tropsch process refineries can also convert some of their gaseous waste into
valuable fuel oil that can be sold or blended with diesel fuel.
References:
Arno de Klerk (2013). "Fischer–Tropsch Process". Kirk‐Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. Weinheim:
Wiley-VCH.retrieved:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/0471238961.fiscdekl.a01

Schulz, H. (1999). "Short history and present trends of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis". Applied Catalysis A:
General. 186 (1–2): 3–12. Retrieved: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0926860X9900160X?via
%3Dihub

James G. Speight. Synthetic Fuels Handbook: Properties, Process, and Performance (The McGraw-Hill
Companies, Inc., 2008). https://www.accessengineeringlibrary.com/content/book/9780071490238