Although the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (F-T synthesis) process is well-known and on face value quite straightforward, using it for DIY production of a somewhat defined length hydrocarbons is fairly tricky. This is
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This alpha value is determined by the temperature and pressure inside the reactor as the syngas – consisting of carbon monoxide and hydrogen – is encouraged by the catalyst material to turn into proper carbohydrates. At very low alpha values this process will finish very quickly, creating mostly methane (CH4), while a higher number creates increasingly longer carbohydrate chains before they terminate with their final hydrogen molecules.
Since this process is exothermic, this creates many exciting opportunities for a production batch to be ruined unless you can somewhat control the temperature and pressure inside the reactor vessel. In the video a heater is used to kickstart the reaction, before it is turned off. As a catalyst an iron-based material is created that is packed inside the steel tube which forms the reactor vessel.
Through this the syngas is led, with the initial experiments producing a few mL of what appears to be pentane and hexane, with the rest apparently being gaseous methane, ethane and similar. This points to a fairly low alpha value, which is not ideal if your goal is to synthesize a specific hydrocarbon. With how complex this process is, there’s a good argument to be made that using F-T synthesis at a high alpha to churn out crude for standard distillation might be the easier method.
