Increasing ethylene production as a high value hydrocarbon in Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reactor: A concept reactor for combining FT with oxidative coupling of methane

The paper proposes a concept configuration of reactors for coupling OCM and FTS, and presents systematic simulation results. FTS section is a combination of fixed bed and membrane fluidized bed reactor, and feed of the FT reactor is supplied by OCM. The reactor configuration is compared with the consecutive reactors of OCM and one fixed bed FT reactor. Effects of CH₄/O₂ ratio, percent of N₂ in the feed, contact time, and input temperature on the yield of ethylene and valuable hydrocarbons are studied. The results show that compared with one FTS reactor configuration, the dual FTS reactor configuration is more effective and thus gives much higher product yields. Furthermore, a main decrease is observed in the formation of CO₂ and CH₄.