A strategy for scaling up the Fischer-Tropsch bubble column slurry reactor

For successful scale-up of the bubble column slurry reactor for Fischer - Tropsch synthesis, we need to have proper description of hydrodynamics and transport phenomena ( gas and liquid holdups, liquid-phase residence time distribution, gas - liquid mass transfer, heat transfer to cooling tubes) as a function of reactor scale ( column diameter and height) and operating conditions ( superficial gas velocity, system pressure, slurry concentration,...). We discuss and develop a scale-up strategy using computational fluid dynamics, with a minimum amount of experimental input from hydrodynamic studies carried out on a relatively small scale.