The Fischer-Tropsch reaction was commercialized in Germany and used to produce military fuels in fixed bed reactors. It was recognized from the start that this reactor system had severe operating and yield limitations and alternative reactor systems were sought. In 1955 the Sasol I complex, using an entrained bed (Synthol) reactor system, was started up in South Africa. Although this reactor was a definite improvement and is still operating, the literature is filled with proponents of other reactor systems, each claiming its own advantages. This report provides a summary of the results of a study to compare the development potential of three of these reactor systems with the commercially operating Synthol-entrained bed reactor system. The commercial Synthol reactor is used as a benchmark against which the development potential of the other three reactors can be compared. Most of the information on which this study is based was supplied by the M.W. Kellogg Co. No information beyond that in the literature on the operation of the Synthol reactor system was available for consideration in preparing this study, nor were any details of the changes made to the original Synthol system to overcome the operating problems reported in the literature. Because ofmore » conflicting claims and results found in the literature, it was decided to concentrate a large part of this study on a kinetic analysis of the reactor systems, in order to provide a theoretical analysis of intrinsic strengths and weaknesses of the reactors unclouded by different catalysts, operating conditions and feed compositions. The remainder of the study considers the physical attributes of the four reactor systems and compares their respective investment costs, yields, catalyst requirements and thermal efficiencies from simplified conceptual designs.« less