Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis Model Involving the Living Growth of Carbon Chains

Abstract

The increasing worldwide energy demand encourages the search for renewable and clean energy resources. In this scenario, Fischer−Tropsch synthesis (FTS) emerges again as a convenient alternative for fuel production, now using cleaner and renewable sources, such as syngas (CO + H 2 ) from biomass. This goal can be tackled with help of mathematical models that are useful for designing products and processes. For this reason, a novel phenomenological model for FTS was developed and is presented here. The model is based on a living addition polymerization scheme, which has not been used to represent the FTS reactions yet. The present work focuses on the estimation of the respective model parameters, while the obtained results indicate that the model provides good fits for the available experimental carbon size distributions and that the temperature exerts a significant direct effect on the kinetic rate constants.