Simulation of a Fischer-Tropsch reactor for jet fuel production using Aspen Custom Modeler

The reduction of CO2 emissions is a key aspect to the world energy transition. Fischer- Tropsch (FT) technologies can contribute to lower our CO2 emissions to the environment by transforming captured CO2 into a wide array of hydrocarbon chains. Under optimized conditions, the reaction yields a high concentration of long carbon chains; which in turn, can be further upgraded into jet fuel. Thus, difficult to electrify sectors of the economy such as the aviation sector could have a defossilized supply of fuel; provided that the feedstock required for the reaction originates from low-carbon energy. In this context, the objective of the present research is to design, install, operate and optimize a FT reactor to serve as core of a future Power-to-Jet Fuel pilot-scale implementation at the University of Liège (ULiège). The first step was to select from the literature the stoichiometry and the kinetics that accurately depict the FT reaction. In this study, the kinetics reported by Iglesia et al. (1993) and the stoichiometry proposed by Hillestad et al. (2014) were selected and implemented in a simulation model developed using Aspen Custom Modeler (ACM). This model was then validated by simulating a computational FT implementation reported in the literature by Tomte (2013). Once validated, the parameters are used to simulate a FT pilot reactor having an inlet of 62 mol H2/h and 29.5 mol CO/h, in compliance to the electrolysis capacity available at the ULiège. The results portray a production of 0.3 mol/h C12-20 chains that could be further upgraded to jet fuel and a conversion of almost 50% of CO towards the FT reaction. In future work, the ACM model of the FT reactor will serve as input for a more complex process model of the Power-to-Jet Fuel production chain, further improving conversion efficiency.