Catalytic plant and process

A process for performing Fischer-Tropsch synthesis on a feed gas comprising carbon monoxide and hydrogen to generate a hydrocarbon product using a plurality of compact catalytic reactor modules each comprising a stack of plates defining flow channels for the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis in which are gas-permeable catalyst structures, and adjacent flow channels for a heat transfer medium, wherein the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is performed in at least two successive stages, each stage being carried out in a plurality of reactor modules through which reactant gas flows are in parallel, and there are the same number of reactor modules for each of the successive stages, all the reactor modules providing identical flow channels, in the first stage the gas flow velocity being sufficiently high and the temperature sufficiently low that no more than 75% of the carbon monoxide undergoes conversion, the gases being cooled between successive stages so as to condense water vapour and some of the hydrocarbon product, and then being subjected to the second stage.