3. Catalyst.
(1) Supply of Cobalt Catalyst. (See reference I (a)/2 and I (a)/3 at end of this Section).
All existing plants (LP and MP) were operated with the Standard Ruhrchemie Cobalt-Thoria-Magnesia-Kieselguhr catalyst. This catalyst was supplied from 3 catalyst manufacturing plants.
From the above tables it can be seen that the FT capacity in Germany was located in 3 different regions as follows:
|
Location |
Total Capacity (ton/year) |
% |
|
Ruhr |
353,749 |
63.67 |
|
Saxony |
176,074 |
31.60 |
|
Silesia |
26,374 |
4.73 |
|
Total |
556,197 |
100.00 |
The three catalyst plants were located accordingly:
|
Name of Company |
Location |
Capacity (oven fillings/month) * |
|
|
Ruhrchemie |
Holten |
100 |
50.0 |
|
Brabag |
Ruhrland |
65 |
32.5 |
|
Wintershall |
Luetzkendorf |
** 35 |
17.5 |
|
TOTAL |
200 |
100.0 |
|
|
* One oven filling 10 M3 0.9 ton cobalt (average |
|||
|
** later increased to 85 to make up for bomb damage at Holten |
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The overall yearly German cobalt consumption for FT plants was between 85 and 95 tons. The cobalt resources of Germany were barely enough to keep all FT plants operating during the war, particularly with Finland the only supplier of the metal. There was no shortage of Thoria.
In the handling of the catalyst in the synthesis, and during reworking in the catalyst plants losses were incurred. These losses differed substantially between Ruhrchemie and Brabag. This may be due to the size of the plant and the fact that Brabag is a more modern installation.
The figures obtained in actual operation are as follows:
|
Plant |
Loss of Cobalt in Synthesis |
Loss of Re-working |
Total Loss |
|
Ruhrchemi |
4.0% |
4.0% |
8.0% |
|
Brabag |
1.0% |
1.5% |
2.5% |
Based on a production of 400 tons primary product per ton cobalt catalyst and using the Brabag figure this would give 16,000 tons of product ultimately produced per ton of cobalt metal.
The production method of the catalyst has not been changed since 1938 with the exception of a new forming and drying device which is described below.
The impending shortage of cobalt had led to a large scale development program to replace this metal with iron. This work was a continuation of earlier attempts to produce a better fuel over iron catalysts.
Research along this line was carried out by the following companies:
I.G. Farben-----(along 4 or 5 different lines)
Ruhrchemie
Rheinpreussen
Brabag
Lurgi
Kaiser Wilhelm Institut-----(Muehlheim)
The detailed result of these efforts is described in Section I. (b). While good catalysts had been developed for a variety of purposes, none was found that could replace cobalt in the existing units.
The operating temperatures of iron catalyst is inherently above that of cobalt. Since the reactor cooling systems had been designed for steam pressures corresponding to cobalt operating temperatures, the substitution could not be successfully accomplished despite the claims of some companies.