Production of synthetic high-octane gasoline from associated petroleum gas

Abstract

The article proposes a method for producing high-octane gasoline from associated petroleum gas (APG), which consists of a combination of the processes of direct aromatization of APG and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FT). The APG aromatization process was experimentally studied in a flow-through installation at a pressure of 0,1 MPa and a temperature of 450-600 °C on a ZnO/ZSM-5/Al2O3 catalyst. It has been shown that at a temperature of 600 °C the degree of conversion of C3+ hydrocarbons is 27,8%, and the yield of aromatic hydrocarbons is 10,9 %. The synthesis of FT was studied on a hybrid Co-Al2O3/SiO2/ZSM-5/Al2O3 catalyst at a temperature of 250 °C, pressure 1,0 MPa, GHSV 1000 h-1. A pilot batch of synthetic gasoline fraction with a volume of 1 liter was produced at a pilot plant, and its main physicochemical and operational properties were analyzed. It has been shown that compounding the gasoline fraction of the FT synthesis and direct aromatization products of APG makes it possible to increase the octane number from 78,5 to 92,8 units, while the density increases from 710 to 778 kg/m3. The proposed technological solutions can be used for processing APG into high-octane synthetic gasoline using GTL modular units.