This study of gas to liquid (GTL) production uses an authothermal reformer (ATR) for synthesis gas production and a slurry bubble column reactor (SBCR) with Cobalt catalyst for the Fisher-Tropsch (FT) conversion to liquid fuels. The well-known Satterfield kinetics are used for the FT reactor; the remaining reactions are simulated assuming thermodynamic equilibrium. The process also includes high-pressure CO2 removal. Important process parameters, which are subject to optimization, include feed rates of water and oxygen, inlet ATR temperature and recycle flows. In addition to determining the process and equipment design, optimization is used to find the controlled variables. The aim is to identify “self-optimizing variables” that indirectly give close-to-optimal operation with constant setpoints, in spite of disturbances.

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