Process for producing liquid hydrocarbons from natural gas

摘要

A GTL process in which synthesis gas is produced from natural gas, Fischer-Tropsch oil is produced from the resulting synthesis gas by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, and liquid hydrocarbons including fuel oil are produced by further refining this, wherein a partial branching occurs at the stage before the synthesis gas produced in the synthesis gas production step is introduced to the Fischer-Tropsch oil production step, the hydrogen concentration of the synthesis gas which enters the branching line is raised by the water gas shift reaction and then high-purity hydrogen is separated therefrom, and the gas remaining after separation is recycled to the aforementioned synthesis gas production step for use as a starting material for producing synthesis gas. It is possible to improve the units of starting material for the process as a whole.