Fischer-Tropsch fuels refinery design

Carbon sources, such as coal, natural gas, biomass and waste, can be converted into transportation fuels by combining appropriate gasification, Fischer-Tropsch and refining technologies. Efficient refining of the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis derived syncrude requires a different approach to refinery design than commonly applied to crude oil refinery design. The design of refineries to optimise the production of on-specification motor-gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel respectively from both high temperature Fischer-Tropsch (HTFT) syncrude and low temperature Fischer-Tropsch (LTFT) are considered. Refinery designs are presented for the production of motor-gasoline and jet fuel with better than 50% yield (better than 70% selectivity on transportation fuel), without resorting to very complex designs. Only diesel fuel refining presented a problem, since the production of on-specification EN590:2004 diesel fuel is limited by a Fischer-Tropsch specific cetane-density-yield trade-off. The compound classes that are required to produce diesel fuel in high yield that meet both minimum cetane number and minimum density requirements are not abundant in Fischer-Tropsch syncrude. Refinery designs for diesel fuel production was limited to a yield of less than 25% EN 590 : 2004 compliant diesel fuel. This yield restriction does not apply when diesel fuel specifications do not have a minimum density requirement.