Abstract: The effect of reaction temperature, pressure, ratio of H2/CO in feedstock, gas hourly space velocity, pressure of steam drum and superficial gas velocity on the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis performance over the industrial production RFT-2 catalyst were investigated in a fixed-bed reactor. The results show that increasing temperature leads to an increase of activity. The high temperature region and the temperature peak in catalyst bed are enlarged. The sensitive degree in different temperature ranges is different. Increasing the pressure increases the activity and improves the selectivity. However the temperature gradient in catalyst bed becomes larger. The ratio of H2 to CO in feedstock affects mainly the catalyst activity and product distribution, while has a less impact on the temperature distribution of catalyst bed. The increase of gas hourly space velocity leads to a decrease of CO and H2 conversion rate, while the selectivity and temperature distribution of catalyst bed did not change significantly. It is found that adjusting the pressure of steam drum is a very effective and sensitive to control the temperature of catalyst bed and it influences the catalyst performance and temperature distribution significantly. The increase of superficial gas velocity can improve the radial heat transfer of catalyst bed and make the temperature distribution more uniform.

Key words: Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, fixed-bed reactor, cobalt-based catalyst, reaction condition, temperature distribution