Secondary Reactions of Ethylene As Studied in a Laboratory-Scale Recycle Slurry Reactor

Data from a recycle laboratory slurry reactor were considered to investigate the secondary reactions of ethylene in Sasol's commercial iron-based low-temperature Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. In particular, the behavior of ethylene was compared to that of propylene. No evidence could be found for significant reincorporation of either of these two olefins. Propylene was hydrogenated to a very small extent, whereas ethylene was substantially hydrogenated. The estimated primary olefin/paraffin ratio for the C 2 fraction was higher than for the C 3 fraction, in line with the prediction of our recently proposed chain length dependent desorption model.