Simultaneous hydrogen production and utilization via coupling of Fischer–Tropsch synthesis and decalin dehydrogenation reactions in GTL technology

A thermally coupled membrane dual-type reactor (TCMDR) has been proposed for simultaneous hydrogen production and utilization in gas-to-liquid technology (GTL). Decalin dehydrogenation reaction is coupled with Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) reaction to improve the heat transfer between endothermic and exothermic sides. Furthermore, Pd–Ag and Hydroxy Sodalite membrane layers are assisted in TCMDR to improve the mass transfer between exothermic/endothermic side and permeation side. Some of the produced hydrogen via decalin dehydrogenation reaction is utilized in FTS reaction and the other is extracted and stored. The modeling results show 95% hydrogen production and 5% hydrogen utilization in FTS reactions in the exothermic reaction side of TCMDR configuration. The performance of TCMDR is compared with the one of conventional reactor (CR) and fluidized-bed membrane dual-type reactor (FMDR). Moreover, the gasoline yield in TCMDR increases about 17% and 29% in comparison with the one in FMDR and CR, respectively. The enhancement in gasoline and hydrogen yields demonstrates the superiority of TCMDR to the previous reactors.