Abstract
The Fischer–Tropsch (FT) process produces versatile final products comprising diverse mixtures of various hydrocarbons, and longer chain hydrocarbon products require further refining processes to obtain the desired product fractions. The hydrocracking reaction of paraffinic hydrocarbons has been intensively investigated from the experimental and theoretical perspectives in past studies. The objective of the study is to develop an alternative hydrocracking model by introducing a production distribution matrix that allows the treatment of cracking products as individual species (i.e., no lumping required) and also by taking into account the vapor–liquid equilibrium (VLE) of the cracking reaction system with the application of Raoult’s law. Models in which the VLE was accounted for apparently produced better agreement between the experimental data and model outputs, and the use of the product distribution matrix was also effective for predicting the hydrocracking reaction. Further, the findings of this study indicated that Raoult’s law was sufficient for predicting the product compositions.
