PROCESS TO PREPARE PARAFFINS AND WAXES

A process for preparing paraffins and waxes includes providing a gas mixture comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide to at least two conversion reactors for catalytically converting the gas mixture to obtain an initial Fischer-Tropsch product comprising paraffins having from 5 to 300 carbon atoms. The initial Fischer-Tropsch product streams from each of the reactors are combined before being subjected to a hydrogenation step. The hydrogenated product stream is separated into C5-C9, C10-C17 and C18-300 fractions. The C18-C300 fraction is separated to obtain one or more light waxes having a congealing point in the range of 30 to 75° C. and a heavy wax having a congealing point in the range of 75 to 120° C. The relative concentrations of the C5-C9 and the C10-C17 fractions, and the concentrations of the light and heavy waxes is changed by raising, lowering or maintaining the reaction temperature of at least one of the reactors.