Which thermodynamic method does it use?

The PENG-ROBINSON property package, over co2, h2, co, water, methane, ethane, propane, n_butane, n_pentane, n_hexane, n_heptane, n_octane — already selected. You can switch the method on the canvas before running.

Which unit operations are in the flowsheet?

It chains RWGS, 2× HEAT, KO, FT. Every block is a real, solvable unit operation you can reconfigure, add to, or remove.

Do I need to install software or buy a license?

No. e-Fuels (Power-to-Liquids): rWGS + Fischer-Tropsch runs entirely in your browser on MaximaLabs — free, no install, no license. Open the model to load it live and run the deterministic solver.

All guides

Power-to-Liquids demonstration plant, Werlte, Germany

How to simulate e-fuels (power-to-liquids): rwgs + fischer-tropsch

The Power-to-Liquids / e-SAF pathway: captured CO₂ and green hydrogen are converted to synthetic hydrocarbons. A reverse water-gas-shift reactor turns CO₂ + H₂ into CO + H₂O (solved to real chemical equilibrium), the water is knocked out, and the syngas feeds a **Fischer-Tropsch reactor** that builds a whole hydrocarbon slate via the **Anderson-Schulz-Flory** chain-growth law. The single knob that sets the product spectrum is the chain-growth probability alpha (here 0.90): a high alpha shifts the slate toward diesel/wax, a low alpha toward LPG/naphtha — the reactor distributes the reacted carbon across n-paraffins C₁..C₈ (the tail lumped as C₈ wax) with **exact C/H/O atom balances**, so it conserves atoms wherever the distribution is cut.

FEED

RWGS

Cool1

RWGS Water

HEAT

Syncrude

1
Open the ready-made model
Open the "e-Fuels (Power-to-Liquids): rWGS + Fischer-Tropsch" model in the MaximaLabs workspace — no install, no license. It loads live on the canvas, ready to edit and run.
2
Confirm the thermodynamics
This process is modeled with the PENG-ROBINSON property package over co2, h2, co, water, methane, ethane, propane, n_butane, n_pentane, n_hexane, n_heptane, n_octane — already selected, so the phase equilibrium and enthalpy are physically consistent from the first run.
3
Review the flowsheet
The flowsheet chains RWGS, 2× HEAT, KO, FT. Every block is a real, solvable unit op you can reconfigure on the canvas.
4
Run the simulation
Click Run. The deterministic solver converges the material and energy balances (recycles included) and fills the live stream table — the AI never invents a number.
5
Read the results and iterate
Inspect the converged streams, tweak a spec, and re-run — or ask the AI copilot to explain a result or diagnose a failed solve in plain English.

What you'll build

Thermodynamics: PENG-ROBINSON
Components: co2, h2, co, water, methane, ethane, propane, n_butane, n_pentane, n_hexane, n_heptane, n_octane
Unit operations: RWGS2× HEATKOFT

Open this model in the workspace

Opens live on the canvas — free, no install.

Explore the model & flowsheet

Modeling assumptions & limitations

What this model captures, and what it deliberately does not — from the engineers who built it.

1(see): this is the standard **yield/selectivity** FT model (ASF + specified CO conversion), not a mechanistic kinetic or slurry/fixed-bed hydrodynamic model; olefin/oxygenate co-products aren't split out (paraffins + water only); the raw syncrude effluent is delivered as-is (a real plant recycles the H₂-rich tail gas and fractionates the liquid — shown here as the reactor product, not a finished fuel cut); and the rWGS Keq is the representative high-temperature equilibrium magnitude.

Frequently asked questions

What does the e-Fuels (Power-to-Liquids): rWGS + Fischer-Tropsch model simulate?: The Power-to-Liquids / e-SAF pathway: captured CO₂ and green hydrogen are converted to synthetic hydrocarbons. A reverse water-gas-shift reactor turns CO₂ + H₂ into CO + H₂O (solved to real chemical equilibrium), the water is knocked out, and the syngas feeds a **Fischer-Tropsch reactor** that builds a whole hydrocarbon slate via the **Anderson-Schulz-Flory** chain-growth law. The single knob that sets the product spectrum is the chain-growth probability alpha (here 0.90): a high alpha shifts the slate toward diesel/wax, a low alpha toward LPG/naphtha — the reactor distributes the reacted carbon across n-paraffins C₁..C₈ (the tail lumped as C₈ wax) with **exact C/H/O atom balances**, so it conserves atoms wherever the distribution is cut.
Which thermodynamic method does it use?: The PENG-ROBINSON property package, over co2, h2, co, water, methane, ethane, propane, n_butane, n_pentane, n_hexane, n_heptane, n_octane — already selected. You can switch the method on the canvas before running.
Which unit operations are in the flowsheet?: It chains RWGS, 2× HEAT, KO, FT. Every block is a real, solvable unit operation you can reconfigure, add to, or remove.
Do I need to install software or buy a license?: No. e-Fuels (Power-to-Liquids): rWGS + Fischer-Tropsch runs entirely in your browser on MaximaLabs — free, no install, no license. Open the model to load it live and run the deterministic solver.

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On-site oxygen: multi-bed vacuum pressure swing adsorption (VPSA)

Medical- / green-steel-grade oxygen generated on site from air by a 4-bed vacuum pressure swing adsorption unit over an N₂-selective zeolite (LiX/13X). This uses the native VPSA unit op — the proven 2-bed Skarstrom engine generalized to N beds with pressure-equalization steps and sub-atmospheric evacuation: nitrogen is adsorbed while oxygen passes as the light product, then each bed is pulled to a vacuum to desorb the nitrogen tail gas. The solver runs the real cyclic transient (tanks-in-series bed discretization + linear-driving-force kinetics + inter-bed equalization) to a periodic steady state — the transient dynamic equilibrium legacy steady-state simulators cannot capture without a separate dynamic license.

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