:These are used for high-temperature FT synthesis (nearly 340 °C) to produce low-molecular-weight unsaturated hydrocarbons on alkalized fused iron catalysts. The fluid-bed technology (as adapted from the catalytic cracking of heavy petroleum distillates) was introduced by Hydrocarbon Research in 1946–50 and named the Hydrocol process. A large scale Fischer–Tropsch Hydrocol plant (350,000 tons per annum) operated during 1951–57 in Brownsville, Texas. Due to technical problems, and impractical economics due to increasing petroleum availability, this development was discontinued. Fluid-bed FT synthesis has been reinvestigated by Sasol. One reactor with a capacity of 500,000 tons per annum is in operation. The process has been used for C and C alkene production. A high-temperature process with a circulating iron catalyst (circulating fluid bed, riser reactor, entrained catalyst process) was introduced by the Kellogg Company and a respective plant built at Sasol in 1956. It was improved by Sasol for successful operation. At Secunda, South Africa, Sasol operated 16 advanced reactors of this type with a capacity of approximately 330,000 tons per annum each. The circulating catalyst process can be replaced by fluid-bed technology. Early experiments with cobalt catalyst particles suspended in oil have been performed by Fischer. The bubble column reactor with a powdered iron slurry catalyst and a CO-rich syngas was particularly developed to pilot plant scale by Kölbel at the Rheinpreuben Company in 1953. Since 1990, low-temperature FT slurry processes are under investigation for the use of iron and cobalt catalysts, particularly for the production of a hydrocarbon wax, or to be hydrocracked and isomerized to produce diesel fuel, by Exxon and Sasol. Slurry-phase (bubble column) low-temperature FT synthesis is efficient. This technology is also under development by the Statoil Company (Norway) for use on a vessel to convert associated gas at offshore oil fields into a hydrocarbon liquid.