Multiphase catalytic reactor operation, such as Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, is often carried out in a packed bed or slurry bubble column. The performance of such a reactor system is the result of the subtle interplay of hydrodynamics, energy and mass transport phenomena, thermodynamics and reaction kinetics at the operation conditions. Structuring of catalyst and reactor internal can decouple phenomena and offer degrees of freedom in reactor operation, as has been shown for the application of monolithic structures.

In the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis the reaction exothermicity poses design challenges for packed bed operation. Heat transport on the reactor level becomes critical on the large scale and multitubular reactor operation is required. Also in this case structuring may relax the boundary conditions for reactor design and provides solutions. Furthermore, the quest for process intensification and development of more active catalysts not only amplifies the heat management issue, but also mass transport limitations start to deteriorate the process yield and selectivity. Fixed bed operation has the advantage of easy catalyst separation from the product mixture, but requires stable catalysts to minimize downtime.

In this contribution a new approach to manufacture highly active and stable Fe- and Co-catalysts for high and low temperature FTS is presented, based on metal organic frameworks as catalyst precursor, the so-called MOF mediated synthesis (MOFMS). The high metal loading (up to 60

wt.%) and high activities poses challenges for the fixed bed reactor operation. Here packed bed structured reactors offer great opportunities to deal with the heat and mass transport challenges.

By a multidimensional optimization of reactor performance an indication can be obtained under what operation conditions and catalyst activity a structured reactor system outperforms a classical packed bed reactor in FTS.