Catalytic process for the direct production of hydrocarbon fuels from syngas

Abstract

A unique process and catalyst is described that operates efficiently at low pressures for the direct production of a high cetane diesel type fuel or diesel type blending stock from stoichiometric mixtures of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. This invention allows for, but is not limited to, the economical and efficient production high quality diesel type fuels from small or distributed fuel production plants that have an annual production capacity of less than 100 million gallons per year by eliminating traditional hydrocracking and other costly upgrading processes. This catalytic process is ideal for distributed diesel fuel production plants such as biomass to fuel production plants and stranded natural gas to diesel fuel production plants, and other applications that require optimized economics based on supporting distributed feedstock resources.

1 - 27 . (canceled) 
     
     
         28 . A process for the production of a hydrocarbon mixture comprising the steps of:
 a) reducing a catalyst in a fixed bed reactor;   b) reacting a feed gas that contains hydrogen and carbon monoxide with the catalyst to produce a hydrocarbon product stream, wherein the hydrocarbon product stream comprises light gases, a diesel fuel and a wax   wherein the diesel fuel fraction is produced without requiring the hydroprocessing of wax.   
     
     
         29 . The process of  claim 28 , wherein the catalyst is reduced at a temperature less than 550 F. 
     
     
         30 . The process of  claim 28 , wherein the catalyst has a pore diameter greater than about 120 angstroms. 
     
     
         31 . The process of  claim 28 , wherein the catalyst has an effective pellet radius of less than 600 microns. 
     
     
         32 . The process of  claim 28 , wherein the catalyst has crush strengths greater than 3 lbs/mm. 
     
     
         33 . The process of  claim 28 , wherein the ratio of diesel fuel to wax in the hydrocarbon product stream is greater than about 5 to 1 weight percent. 
     
     
         34 . The process of  claim 28 , wherein the diesel fuel has a lubricity ranging from 200 micron to 475 micron per the ASTM D6079 fuel lubricity test. 
     
     
         35 . The process of  claim 29 , wherein the catalyst has a pore diameter greater than about 120 angstroms, an effective pellet radius of less than 600 microns and crush strengths greater than 3 lbs/mm. 
     
     
         36 . The process of  claim 29 , wherein the ratio of diesel fuel to wax in the hydrocarbon product stream is greater than about 5 to 1 weight percent. 
     
     
         37 . A process for the production of a hydrocarbon mixture comprising:
 a) reducing a catalyst in-situ in a fixed bed reactor;   b) reacting a feed gas that contains hydrogen and carbon monoxide with the catalyst, wherein the catalyst comprises active metal distributed on a support, and wherein the dispersion of the distributed metal is between about 2 percent and 10 percent   thereby producing a hydrocarbon product stream comprising light gases, diesel fuel and a wax, wherein the majority of hydrocarbons in the diesel fuel are C 8 -C 24  hydrocarbons.   
     
     
         38 . The process of  claim 37 , wherein the catalyst comprises greater than about 5 weight percent of cobalt, iron, nickel or a combination thereof based on a total weight of metal and support. 
     
     
         39 . The process of  claim 37 , wherein the support is a tri-lobe or quad-lobe support. 
     
     
         40 . The process of  claim 37 , wherein the catalyst further comprises about 0.01 weight percent to about 2.0 weight percent of a promoter selected from a group consisting of ruthenium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, gold, or a combination thereof. 
     
     
         41 . A process for the production of a hydrocarbon mixture, wherein the process comprises the steps of:
 a) reacting a feed gas containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide with a supported catalyst in a fixed bed reactor to produce a product stream comprising light hydrocarbon gases, diesel fuel and a wax;   b) introducing the product stream into a single vessel separator, wherein it is condensed into two liquid fractions, and wherein the top fraction contains the diesel fuel and the bottom fraction contains water.   
     
     
         42 . The process of  claim 41 , wherein the process further comprises separating light hydrocarbon gases, unreacted carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas from the two fractions in the single vessel at a temperature below about 80° C. 
     
     
         43 . The process of  claim 41 , wherein the product stream is introduced into the separator at no less than 15 degrees F. below the temperature of the fixed bed reactor. 
     
     
         44 . The process of  claim 41 , wherein the single vessel separator uses a vane that controls liquid levels on each side to remove the diesel fraction.