Catalysts Studies in Support of Commercial CTL Projects in Kentucky

The cost of catalyst is 50% or more of the total operating cost of a commercial Fischer- Tropsch plant. Currently no commercial Fischer-Tropsch plant in the world is operating on coal derived synthesis gas. No commercial Fischer-Tropsch catalysts are available for purchase. Thus, a developer of a Fischer-Tropsch plant must obtain the proposed data before they could make a reasonable choice of catalyst and the proposed work would provide the basis for a potential developer to make this choice. In addition, the extent of synthesis gas cleaning is at least one-third the cost of generating synthesis gas. To date, no data are available in the open literature that would allow a potential developer to define the level of gas cleaning that would be required for a successful commercial plant. The data developed in the proposed work would provide a developer with the data needed to make such a decision.